AXIOM

"Axiom" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal act Ansur. The album was released through Candlelight Records in August 2006. Ansur formed in 2003 and released a demo in 2004, which was re-released in 2005 with the altered title "Carved in Flesh". In 2011 after releasing two full-length studio albums, Ansur decided to change their name to Leixis and play progressive rock instead of the progressive black metal style they performed under the Ansur monicker.

Axiom opens with the relatively short "Earth Erasure", but during the 3:19 minutes playing time, the listener is treated to most of the riff styles and songwriting ideas which Ansur explore on the remaining part of the album. The vocals are extreme, but not the most extreme black metal snarling I have ever heard. There are thrash metal styled raw vocals here too and the same can be said about the riff style. The music is dynamic and often features open chords, use of light dissonance, changing time-signatures, and atmospheric melodic parts (even occasionally epic in scope). So describing this as progressive black metal is valid enough.

Although Glenn Ferguson is credited for performing drums on "Axiom", the drums sound artificial and programmed to my ears. They are one of the least interesting features on the album. The guitar riffs, the guitar solos, and the occasional change from raw and brutal to melodic and atmopsheric are on the other hand some of the greatest features of the music. The vocals are decent too.

The album features a sound production which on one hand sounds pretty good, but there are couple of things which drag it down. The drum sound has already been mentioned as a negative, but there is something wrong with the overall sound of the album too. It´s like it wasn´t recorded at a professional recording studio. It sounds like a very well sounding digital demo recording. When that is said "Axiom" is still an interesting, intriguing, and well composed progressive black metal release and a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).