The first time I heard Aaskereia, I was surprised and confused, especially by the singer's voice, he's affectionately named Grim. Before I start, Aaskereia is a folk influenced black metal band from Germany. Beginning in 1997, they presently have three demos, a live album (a live album after 3 demos?), an EP and a full album entitled Mit Raben Und Wölfen which was released at the end of 2003.

Relying on four members, Aaskereia have two guitarists, Halvar Norgesverd and Eihwaz. To be honest, the fact that they have two guitarists doesn't really change anything because neither is very talented. However, Eihwaz executes the acoustic bits, and I must say, they give Mit Raben Und Wölfen a relatively brilliant and glacial aspect. Next, drummer Fafnir operates in a very convincing fashion and serves up some fast tempos throughout this production's 31 minutes. Strangely, the strong point belongs to singer Grim who offers some totally insane vocals that tend to become over the top and are borderline ridiculous. A much better, Vintersorg-like, clean vocal is presented with the acoustic choruses, but it still needs some work because, at certain spots, he's out of tune. Without being mean, it would be good for Aaskereia to hire another singer to help M. Grim out because it seems that taking care of two types of vocals might be too difficult a job for Grim. More so, the addition of a bassist would be more than appropriate, it would give more depth and a more laboured production.

Given that Aaskereia don't yet have a distributor, it's difficult for them to have a clear and hitch-less sound. But for a home made production, I find it still very passable.

Even though they have many aspects to improve upon, Mit Raben Und Wölfen remains an album that I like to listen to once in a while. This is not a priority album for your purchase list, but once you have it, you don't end up regretting your acquisition.

If you understand German, go check out Aaskereia's web site at www.aaskereia.de .