Ferndal release Asuras on 5 December. Six tracks, and Markus Stock recorded it at Klangschmiede Studio E in Mellrichstadt.
The studio is the detail that tells you most. Stock, who makes his own music as Empyrium and The Vision Bleak, has been the hands behind a long run of German records where the melody matters as much as the cold, and a band working in melodic black metal going to him is a statement about which half of that phrase they care about.
The running order is Asuras, Uncrowned, Dritte Vollkommenheit, Interludium, Herr der Weisheit and Mitternachtssonnen. Half the titles are German and half are not, and one of the six is an interlude, so the record is shorter than the count suggests.
The title track came out first and is the one we wrote about at the start of the month. The album is self released, which at this level is now the normal arrangement rather than a sign of being overlooked.
Melodic black metal with folk under it is a crowded field in Germany, and what separates the records that last is whether the melodies survive being played without distortion. Stock is the producer who tends to find that out.