Ashen is the best album of the year (in my very biased opinion), here’s why. Ashen is the fourth studio album of the Swedish metal band Humanity’s Last Breath. The band consists of two guitarists Buster Odeholm and Calle Thomer with vocalist Filip Danielsson and drummer Marcus Rossel. Buster is the one that most people consider to be the “mastermind” behind the band considering he plays the guitar for the band and records and plays drums on the record. He is also attributed to producing all the albums with this latest one Ashen being one of his best works. Calle is the other guitarist and co-producer of the band but he is more well known for fellow Swedish metal project Vildhjarta where he also works with Buster. The album features a very interesting soundscape consisting of strange ambient noise, high pitched guitar sounds and haunting vocals. My personal favorite track on the album is called Instill which features a choir in the beginning singing a bulgarian folk song or at least the melody of it. Another favorite of mine is Labyrinthian where It contains an extremely groovy breakdown in the end section of the song that I can’t resist bobbing my head to. This is just some background information on the album but why do i think it’s the best album of the year? Well it’s simple at least to me. It contains low tuned guitars, crushing drums, disgusting vocals and an incredible atmosphere. Now those things might seem simple to achieve but to a level of mastery Humanity’s last breath has reached it just stands above the rest in my eyes.