Efference is the debut album from Jack of All Trades Asira. Meticulously blending blues, prog and elements of black metal with a background of ambience for an album that flits between pretty musings in articulate melodies to harsh and bleak chord structures that loom like dark skies.
As the saying goes Jack of all trades, master of none, but still better than a master of one Asira utilize their musings deliberately. Melding their influences in to obvious chunks. Where the strucure within each song applies each style as a core principle or part. While you can’t accuse them of being all over the place the schizotypal inclusion of the genres they draw from creates a sloppy dynamic of contrasting styles in effect.
Yet even with their obvious genre allusions by way of inclusion to definitely stylized passages what they do they do it beautifully. Giving dreamlike qualities to their more eloquent passages before they are methodically exchanged for fits of blast beats and guttural shrieking, while hiding in the background otherworldly synths create ghostly moods with ethereal patterns. All of these sentiments are wound around a keen interpretation of sophistication heavily relying on the guitar as its base instrument.
Efference isn’t the first album to try merging dulcet cadences with aggressive riffs but its own personality does shine with an acute reverie and although it’s not wearing the fanciest pants in prog metal they’re still very noticeable. Fashioning customary techniques into a familiar production line. Asira have made their intentions clear and have got something recognizable as their own on this their debut.
8/10
