ASP. Verfallen Folge 1: Astoria

For this album, Songwriter and Singer Asp has turned “Das Fleisch der Vielen” (“The flesh of many”), a haunting short story exclusively written for this compelling project by bestselling German author Kai Meyer, into a melodious horror tale. The album cycle “Fremd”, its current release “Maskenhaft” having peaked on the Media Control Charts at Number 2, will be continued after the completion of the second part of VERFALLEN.

Folge (episode) 1: Astoria. The setting is as glamorous and eerie as it is real: The Hotel Astoria in Leipzig, built in splendour in 1915, a flamboyant nightlife address for half its life, has been left to ruin for almost two decades now. As the suspense and the frisson unfold with each of Asp’s songs, the faded beauty comes to life again not only as part of the scenery, but as a leading lady.

The songs tell the imaginative tale in chronological order. In that, VERFALLEN resembles ASP’s “Zaubererbruder” album, with which ASP has been garnering fans from beyond the realms of the Gothic scene ever since its publication in 2008.

ASP ask a lot of their audience. And their fans love them for their poetry put to music. These songs come from Goth Rock, but there is also Metal, Drone-Doom, Chanson, Tango even … held together and lovingly blackened by catchy, but never little, melodies. This is Gothic Novel Rock, versatile and haunting as ever, yet even more eclectic. Then there are the lyrics. Like in H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, the horror uncurls slowly, subtly, inescapably. Asp’s songwriting effortlessly balances suspense with coherence, grim and ghastly tales with the pure joy of stories well told.

Acclaimed artist Joachim Luetke, who has been working for MARILYN MANSON, SOPOR AETERNUS, DIMMU BORGIR, KREATOR and ARCH ENEMY, has shed his own distinctive light on the hotel’s horrible secrets with the album artwork.

CD in 6-panel digipak
48 pages containing the scarily beautiful pictorial worlds of cult artworker Joachim Luetke
Includes complete album lyrics