THE BEAST

Swedish black metal duo Åskog presents their first offering, a demo release Varg, scheduled for October 16th on cassette and digital formats.

Åskog began life in the early summer of 2020. After disbanding their previous band, Adam and Lars formed Åskog to inspire new ideas, create a stronger identity, and renew the cooperation between them. The band wanted to further improve their superior songwriting and deliver a stronger production and fresh sound. Formulating an eclectic mix of black metal, doom metal, heavy metal, and even flirting with elements of death metal, the Vänersborg ensemble surprises and throws a spanner in the works with twists and turns, leaving the listeners guessing for what comes next.

Åskog is thematically based on the cold and harsh brutality of nature. While most black metal bands typically glorify a romantic vision of hell, prance about in cloaks chanting magical spells, or sing about war, Åskog believes the darkness is much closer to home.  The chaotic nature the world has been in during the Covid-19 pandemic gave Adam and Lars a renewed opportunity to work closely together on new material. “It’s always best to write about what an individual knows,” the band informs, “so Åskog was born.”

Vocalist and bass player, Lars, had bought an old decrepit forest house deep in the woods of Värmland, where the band took its name from. The inspiration came right away from the vast nature and wilderness while the old forest house carried its own morbid history and stories from the past. “You only have to watch nature documentaries to realize the natural world is truly a horrific place. The great outdoors is romanticized, but the reality is it is brutal with no room for concession or concern,” comments the band.

Four songs were written very quickly between July and August of 2020. The material was coming together steadily, and the band decided to start getting the wheels rolling to drum up interest for the planned album in 2021. As a result, they decided to offer a glimpse of the developed musical identity through releasing a demo release, titled Varg. The digital version contains “Varg” and “Korp” — two quite different tracks in terms of sonority. The cassette version features a bonus track “Vatten.”
 
The band is still working on the full-length but already have new songs in the works that broaden the current sonic identity.

PRE-ORDER Cassette + Digital:
https://askog.bandcamp.com/album/varg 

FOR MORE INFO:
https://www.facebook.com/askog666 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3AzfC2rzXNQvMj98NPKRCw