Asphyxiation

After 'Extinct', a very simple little walk-through of basic mid-tempo riffs and nothing more, Sound Ogre's second release sees Juha Untinen venture into decidedly more complex musical territories, getting a lot closer to the sound and style heard on his later Vortech albums. 'Asphyxiation' is still far from perfect, but a notable improvement compared to the debut EP.

The music here is for the most part relatively fast death/thrash with symphonic elements and an occasional electronic break to spice things up. The riffs are rather simple and, again, the tracks have no melodies to speak of, but this is still anything but monotonous due to varied rhythms. Also, there is a whole new degree of musicality to be heard, especially in the keyboard parts, and the arrangements are filled with details. It's drastically different from the earlier release, generally speaking, and has no hint of any “try-out” nature – this time it's for real.

The problem is that many of the tracks are far too short and similar to each other in order to have any character of their own. By the third track you begin to wonder if they're supposed to be separated at all. 'Variable of Irresolution' then stands out for having greater musical variety; the following 'Visions Macabre', on the other hand, is clearly slower and more straightforward than the rest – but this is a good thing only because it's something different. Overall, the EP would benefit from having more identifiable tracks on it.

Most importantly, there are no vocals this time around either. As before, the music doesn't work too well on its own due to the lack of melodies, and there seems to be something important missing. There are lyrics available, but I have always found the idea of lyrics without vocals to be a tad pretentious. Another issue, though less annoying, is that the programmed drums are not very good – too simple, at times a bit awkward, and in the faster parts sounding more like a machine gun than percussion (but in a bad way).

'Asphyxiation' was without a doubt a necessary release for Juha Untinen himself. There is growth to be heard in both compositional skill and musicianship, and future Vortech releases lurk just around the corner after hearing this one. It's enjoyable to an extent, but I seriously doubt hearing this was ever essential to anyone except the artist.