Review: “Infernua” by Azken Auzi

Back in 2023 French occult Doom Sludge outfit Azken Auzi rose to prominence with their self titled album, a record which found the trio musing on themes of Apocalypse, War, Religion, Serial killers and Madness over riffs fit for worship. Three years on, following the departure of bassist Laurent Deramchi, who has been replaced in a live capacity by Enzo Gasperini, it is written that vocalist and guitarist Ludovic “Frozen” Tabouret and drummer Fredéric Rondonnet have been refined the sound that gained them so much attention for sophomore album “Infernua“. What they promise is something which is darker, more technical and emotionally deeper with greater atmospheric tension and while not a concept record, one which has over arching themes. Described as an exploring of the shadows of the human soul through oppressive heaviness, hypnotic grooves and carefully crafted dynamics, “Infernua” is said to find the band in a place where raw power meets introspection, creating a journey that is both brutal and immersive.

Soaked in existential dread opening cut “Deep Hell” has flavours of bands like Crowbar, Bongripper and Candlemass interwoven into its very soul with long passages of soul stirring instrumentation in down tuned riffs creating a sense of tension in the waters. That’s broken by the caustic screams of Frozen, whose anguished cries come from a place of real pain, giving a deep rooted sense of grit and integrity that you feel in your guts. That sense continues into “SK“, a track which finds Frozen offering some haunting clean guitar passages in the mid section that set the teeth on edge like nails on a chalk board. Such is the crushing weight and melancholia of the distorted riffs that the cleans cut to the bone like a hot knife through butter. These tunes are as bleak as they come, each one offering a different kind of catharsis as one pain dulls another and while the overall sound is stripped back and somewhat primitive, there are plenty of nuanced moments too. An instrumental embellished by a couple of film samples “Black Mass” uses the haunting clean guitar moments to provide the effect of leads; the sonic weight of the overall piece one that entices with hypnosis as it plays out in monolithic glory.

Eternal perpetual forward motion continues the glacial “See You Next Tuesday“, a powerhouse of the low and slow variety that brings the vocals back in devastating fashion. Harsh to the point of being caustic, they’re a twisted vine that grows, slowly tearing apart what it grows upon like parasite with barbed thorns penetrating the flesh around the skull. The sonic equivalent of a giant beast walking through a tar pit with a slow yet determined trudge, the way in which the longer instrumental passages let the song breathe works incredibly well. Twisting and contorting into something with more of a Post-Metal sound “Reptilian” finds the band joined by Voidozer vocalist Nico, whose cleaner vocals fuel the bleak, harrowing lyrical narrative. Darker and more emotively driven than anything we’ve heard from Azken Auzi previously, this one feels like the band are pushing their boundaries and aren’t afraid of what scratching that itch might bring. Instrumental “From Hell” brings the tattered, torn and stained crushed velvet curtain down on the album with an almost Scandinavian sense of melancholia, distorted, down tuned chord progressions making for expression in minimalism that will leave you staring into the middle distance [7/10]

Track Listing

1. Deep Hell
2. SK
3. Black Mass
4. See You Next Tuesday
5. Reptilian (ft. Nico Voidozer)
6. From Hell

“Infernua” by Azken Auzi is out 6th March 2026 via Argonauta Records