Release Date March 13th, 2026
Format Digital
Genre Black Metal
Country Spain
Aschen came together in 2022 when Mikel Telletxea started throwing ideas around with bassist Igor Valle. They dropped a self-titled demo in 2023 that caught some ears in the underground scene. Eventually, Atauzz stepped in on bass to complete the lineup. The trio headed over to Atala Studios in Spain during August 2025 to track their first proper release. To give the tracks maximum power, they handed mastering duties to Toni Lindgren at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden.
On "The Never Ending Search", the music delivers a heavy dose of dynamic tension rooted deeply in black metal. The guitars shift gears constantly, jumping straight from slow, suffocating doom passages into fast, tearing blast beats. Mikel weaves haunting, melodic textures through all the aggressive riffing. The execution provides extreme intensity, avoiding the usual grim stereotypes associated with the style. The shifting tempos keep the momentum moving forward.
The vocal delivery attacks the listener using a mix of English and Basque, adding a unique regional flavor to the screaming. Instead of the typical satanic or pagan topics, the lyrics dig into the human mind and its broken nature. The words explore how individual ruin spreads outward, destroying society and the natural world around us. Singing in their mother tongue gives the aggressive vocal rasps an extra layer of raw emotion.
The professional mastering job ensures the drums and guitars sound huge, giving the extreme shifts maximum impact. The transitions from suffocating doom sections to blistering speed work well most of the time. Occasionally, the sudden jumps lose a tiny bit of momentum, leaving some sections dragging slightly before the next blast beat kicks in. These minor pacing issues keep the music from perfection, resulting in a score slightly above average. Overall, the riffs remain killer.
The artwork by Mikel Telletxea ties everything together visually. It depicts an endless labyrinth made of overlapping fingerprints, representing an unresolved inward and outward journey. The image matches the heavy, searching nature of the music perfectly. Aschen delivers a very good debut full of interesting ideas and heavy riffs. "The Never Ending Search" provides a heavily distorted ride worth checking out.
Score: 7.5
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