Over the last ten years or so, a lot of great Death Metal bands have been rising from the depths of Denmark. Think of bands like Undergang, Taphos, Sulphurous, and of course, Phrenelith. These bands are generally better known within the underground scene than by the mainstream Death Metal audience.
‘Ashen Womb’ is Phrenelith’s third full-length album, released last year in 2025 by Me Saco Un Ojo and Dark Descent Records. After the instrumental intro, the first proper track, ‘Astral Larvae’, bursts upon us like a volcano of Death Metal. This is exactly the type of Death Metal I long for: fast and aggressive! What follows is song after song of pure brutality, delivered in the same uncompromising way you would expect from a band like Hyperdontia.
For me, the track ‘Nebulae’ stands out because it contains everything that Phrenelith stands for, in my opinion.
I have only two minor points of criticism. Firstly, the song ‘Sphageion’ feels a bit like a filler track just to complete the album. Secondly, the title track, ‘Ashen Womb’, runs for almost ten minutes and I feel it would have been better if it had ended around the six-minute mark, but that is purely my opinion.
Overall, this is a great Death Metal album with plenty of variation. It was a blind buy for me, and a highly successful one at that!
