Anasarca - Achlys

Consistency and reliability should be regarded as the highest of virtues, especially in an environment and culture as notably conservative, preservationist, and enthralled by its own mythology as the death metal scene writ large. The prominence and relevance of regional scenes is only as strong as its most vital representatives, either in the popular conscious or the underground. Anasarca formed in the tumultuous mid-90s when death metal was catastrophically strangled by the emergent groove metal and hardcore movements. They were staunch purists in a time when such notions were generally frowned upon. “Godmachine” and “High On Blood” from Skåne, Sweden-based Deranged were modern and brutal iterations of the traditional death metal sound. Coventry, England’s Bolt Thrower is rightly revered as the standard-bearer of a band that had a flawless career trajectory and never dabbled in ill-advised experimentation. In Germany Anasarca is, was, and remains an immutable and implacable pillar. Michael Dormann and his Anasarca have proudly been flying the flag for death metal for well over 30 years and counting. “Achlys” is the fifth and latest jewel in their stainless crown.

Whereas progressive death metal pioneers Cemetery underwent a few stylistic transformations and name changes (before returning to their original moniker) and not going much of anywhere, consummate Carcass imitators Golem released a trio of strong albums heavily redolent of “Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious” decades ago, high priests of hubris and technical grandmasters Pavor havs its two monumental albums, and abstract avant-gardists Ingurgitating Oblivion continue to defy strict categorization. Fleshcrawl is still around but hasn’t released any new music since the global pandemic of 2019. Emden, Lower Saxony-based Anasarca has been, is, and continues to be, one of the most consistent (and persistent) forces in the German underground death metal scene since forming in 1995. Their beloved debut “Godmachine” is legendary for its combination of American death metal of the Florida persuasion with Swedish melody of the Stockholm tradition. “Moribund” and “Dying” modernized their approach while remaining largely similar. In 2004 founder Michael Dormann laid the band to rest only to reform 9 years later. The result of this was the 2015 and 2017 “Survival Mode” demo and album, respectively. Almost ten years have passed since that time which brings us at last to “Goddess of the Somber Shade - Promo 2024” and its companion album “Achlys”. Anasarca was never the most prolific but always has, and consistently continues to, deliver the highest quality.

The original Anasarca line-up consisted of frontman Dormann (who doubled on guitar), second guitarist Frank Tholen, bass guitarist Christian Jansen, and drummer Heiner Saliger. Saliger left after the demos and was replaced by drummer Herbert Grimm. This configuration recorded the “Godmachine” album in 1998 for the now defunct Repulse Records. Tholen was the next to leave and he was superceded by guitarist Benjamin Hakbilir as Dormann signed to Danish label Mighty Music for the subsequent “Moribund” session in 2000. In the years that followed both Hakbilir and long-time bassist Jansen left effectively reducing Anasarca down to a duo of Dormann and Grimm. In that capacity they recorded the uniformly savage “Dying”, their second (and final) album for Mighty Music, in 2004. When Grimm exited later in the year the band was down to Dormann alone. When Anasarca reformed in 2013 Dormann assembled a new line-up consisting of himself, guitarists Steffen Parth and Carsten Geerlings along with Despondency drummer Dirk Janssen. On “Achlys” on Dormann and Geerlings remain complemented by new bass guitarist Björn Fuhlendorf and drummer Alf Kluge. Five albums scattered over a respectable 30 years should count for something. Where others have stumbled and lost the plot Anasarca remains fiercely true to the form.

“Godmachine” is a standalone record of sorts as it’s a mere collection of non-interconnected songs. “Moribund” and “Dying” is where Anasarca’s thematical – and conceptual era truly begun, with the latter being about inmates awaiting execution on deathrow and the former chronicled the effects of debilitating and terminal illness. “Survival Mode”, true to its name, was about people in life-threatening situations and survival instinct under perilous circumstances. For the first time in over quarter of a century Anasarca takes a foray into the esoteric and Greek folklore. Achlys (Ἀχλύς) as depicted in the Hesiodic Shield of Heracles is the ancient Greek personified spirit (daimona) and Primordial goddess of the death-mist as the meta-physical embodiment of sorrow, misery, sadness, and sometimes deadly poisons. “Achlys” is derived from poems (both by famous writers and lesser scribes) about the inevitability of death and the unbearable sorrow that it bestows on the survivors, on those left behind. Attentive listeners will recognize that ‘Achlys’ borrows the central motif of Sergei Prokofiev's Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64ter 1. Montagues and Capulets (The Prince Gives His Order and Dance of the Knights). To the surprise of absolutely nobody ‘Wish You Were Here’ is not a Pink Floyd cover. As always this is stout, robust death metal on the olden model with melodic accents that never get overly flowery.

Dormann has shown incredible loyalty towards producer Cord Hanken and his Art Temple Studio in Hundsmühlen. “Goddess of the Somber Shade - Promo 2024” was significant in that regard as he broke with this tradition when they moved operations to Wretched Noise Studio in Oldenburg with producer Daniel Meinzer. This seems to be their new home from here on out as “Achlys” was cut at that facility as well. Of all the older German death metal bands Anasarca always had the coolest logo. The artwork is suitably ominous this time around and once again from herr Robert Sindermann. It just as easily could’ve come from one of primordial death/doom metal albums from the early-to-mid 1990s. In the modern age more readily marketable units as Alkaloid, Cytotoxin, Deadborn, Defeated Sanity, Despondency, and even notorious showboaters Necrophagist and its controversy-steeped offshoot Obscura tend to attract all the attention and to a degree many of the elder statesmen have been eclipsed by them. “Achlys” never professes to reinvent anything but is a stoic reminder that only the strongest death metal persists in the face of younger, more technically inclined generations obsessed with speed and technological advances in recording. Anasarca is a timeless and ageless beast that will sporadically strike and claim its rightful place.