Asrai, a Dutch heavy metal slash gothic rock band, tempts the masses with a radio-edit of their ‘Sour Ground’ and tries to lure them into buying their new full-length, Pearls In Dirt. And if you like 80s female fronted pop you might just find yourself caught. The most conspicuous element on this piece is the vocal part that stems directly from the period that the new wave movement, propelled forward by Depeche Mode amongst others, arrived as far as influencing Kim Wilde. Imagine something like ‘Cambodia’, take out the electro-pop elements, add a little speed, rock guitars, a more modern, though not too modern, sounding synth and you’ve got an impression of ‘Sour Ground’.

Though this might sound interesting for some of you, I’ll have to warn that on the level of technique and structure, this is quite run-of-the-mill gothic rock that shows very predictable arrangements and will become tedious soon enough. But let’s not judge everything based on one song, moreover an edited version, so check out the coming disc if you find yourself enticed. It will be however without my intervention this time because I’ve already had more than enough.