Some records need time. Time to ferment, time to sink in, time to rise again from the mud and ash. From Ashes is exactly that kind of album. After four years of near silence, Denmark’s Bogwife return sounding bigger, deeper and far more confident. This isn’t a quick follow-up, it’s a slow-burning slab of doom, stoner, psych and heavy blues, soaked through with a warm, dusty 70s spirit.
The name Bogwife says it all. Rooted in Jutland folklore, the Bogwife is the mythical “moor woman,” believed to brew the dense autumn fog known as Mosekonens bryg. That image hangs over the entire album like a thick, late-season mist. These songs feel summoned rather than written, drifting between ancient legends, occult rituals and the eternal cycle of sacrifice, decay and rebirth. An album called From Ashes couldn’t ask for a more fitting mythological backbone.
Musically, Bogwife have taken a clear step forward. Where A Passage Divine leaned heavily on classic stoner rock traditions, From Ashes widens the palette. There’s more blues in the bloodstream, more rock swagger, more space to breathe. Crushing doom riffs crawl out of the speakers, only to dissolve into psychedelic passages or settle into deep, head-nodding grooves. It’s heavy without being blunt, trippy without disappearing up its own haze.
The band’s sense of dynamics is a major strength. Shivering pulls you straight into the fog, Light Of Day lodges itself firmly in your brain, Agony channels desert-born weight in true Kyuss fashion, while Heavy Burden Blues digs so deep into the blues that you can almost smell damp earth and old whiskey. Tight grooves, tasteful lead work, powerful yet distant vocals from Mikkel Munk Iversen and rock-solid drumming keep all eight tracks gripping from start to finish.
From Ashes isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it perfects its own ritual. A huge-sounding, atmospheric record that balances doom, stoner, psych and blues with genuine soul. Bogwife are no longer just wandering in the fog — they’re commanding it.
-Helge Neumann
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