Metal Underground.com

How does Code666 keep doing it? The label just consistently grabs hold of the most interesting underground entities that offer significantly more on the musical front than the predictable big name metal bands. Recent signing Ashenspire keeps that reputation going strong with an avant-garde take on music that features a very strong throwback to cult metal days before the advent of the Internet, when every new band was a hard-fought discovery.

Ashenspire strongly brings to mind the near-mythical Devil Doll, a bizarre musical creation with equally bizarre mastermind Mr. Doctor (who was known as much for his odd antics and secretive nature as the music). Much like with Devil Doll, there's a very strange but also very compelling brew of atmospheric instrumental sections, full-force metal, and “sprechgesang” style voice overs. If you fondly remember discovering “The Girl Who Was... Death” back in the '90s, you will be right at home with "Speak Not of the Laudanum Quandary.”

These seven tracks gleefully offer up unhinged screaming over wobbly violins, shift gears into piano and guitar solos layered atop one another, then ditch those in favor of atmospheric instrumental segments. All that and more might appear in any given 9 – 10 minute track. No matter what style is being presented, the album is incredibly theatric, and fans of Root will also find lots to love here.

I'm not going to sugar coat this one: you absolutely have to be into the much weirder aspects of metal to fully appreciate “Speak Not of the Laudanum Quandary,” with its odd vocals and avant-garde take on musical composition. For those who crave something outside the norm though, the album successfully brings to mind an earlier time when metal was legitimately underground and experimental before digital downloads and instant information sort of ruined everything.