For more than 20 years, vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen has been spearheading Danish rock and roll machine Volbeat, releasing eight full-lengths, selling millions of albums, and filling stadiums worldwide. Before fronting Volbeat, however, Poulsen formed death metal band Dominus, which recorded four fast, brutal albums in the mid ’90s. When Poulsen was putting together songs for Volbeat’s 2021 album, Servant of the Mind, he wrote a bunch of death metal riffs and saved them on his phone. Then, when he was done with the Volbeat record, he reopened the rusty gates to Armageddon and started putting together songs for his new death metal band Asinhell, whose debut album Impii Hora (Latin for “Ungodly Hour”), is a tribute to Poulsen’s favorite old-school groups.
Today, the band has shared the video for “Pyromantic Scryer.”
Watch it https://youtu.be/h9ttwJTq1pk
“‘Pyromantic Scryer’ was the first song I wrote for the album and it surely has an Entombed vibe, and as I’ve said before, it was L.G. Petrov who kicked started the birth of Asinhell,” says Poulsen.
“Pyromancy is the ‘art’ of prophecy/augury by any means of fire,” says vocalist Marc Grewe. “The song is about a mad man who thinks he can predict the future from fires. Fires he sets himself. In his delusion, he thinks he is a misunderstood messiah. The song can also been seen metaphorical on some things that are going on (and wrong) in the world of today… a small spark of a mad man (or group/cult) can set the world on fire. I think the video created by Shan Dan shows this dangerous behavior in a quite drastic way!”
Poulsen has rekindled the death metal fire that fueled his first band Dominus. He began jamming on riffs with longtime friend and neighbor, drummer Morten Toft Hansen (Raunchy). The two started playing in Morten’s tiny garage: no mics, no P.A. — just a drum kit and a combo amp turned all the way up like they used when they were teenagers. Soon, the pair were completing a new song every time they got together. When it came time to add vocals, Poulsen turned to his good friend, who also happened to be one of his all-time favorite death metal growlers: Marc Grewe (Insidious Disease, ex-Morgoth).
“I had known Michael quite a long time and he always mentioned that we should do a death metal project one day, but I never took him too seriously because he was so busy with Volbeat,” Grewe says. “Then he called for real and said, ‘Yeah, I want to do it now. Are you up for it?’ Immediately, I was like, ‘Yes, of course!'”
With Asinhell fully formed, the three convened with Volbeat producer Jacob Hansen to produce, mix, and play bass on their debut album. When it was time to add lead guitar to the album, Michael looked no further than friend and The Arcane Order axeman Flemming C. Lund.
Impii Hora was released September 29 via Metal Blade.