Asva: Holly Johnston, Milky, Trey Spruance, Ben Thomas, G. Stuart Dahlquist, B.R.A.D., Troy Swanson.

Dark ambient is a genre often handicapped by false gravitas but Asva's gray, enveloping soundscapes have an undeniable impact. Stuart Dahlquist, who has been a member of Sunn O))), Goatsnake, and Burning Witch, helms the project, and is assisted here by various musicians from the "drone doom" scene in the Pacific Northwest. FRONTIER's four tracks are long and sludgy, but never dull. "Christopher Columbus" employs whirring guitars and drums run through a delay for a tribal effect, while the epic closer "A Trap for Judges" genuinely terrifies over the course of its gradual buildup and eventual atrophy.