Aeons Abyss is an Australian death metal studio project that has been around since 2017, and have now finished their first full length Impenitent slated for release in November. Apparently the music for this album has been written since the mid 1990’s and it was simmering for over a decade when it would finally be unearthed and unleashed around the world.
Starting in 1995, a dark cloud emerged over Jyväskylä when Alghazanth was formed. A name taken from within a dream of Gorath Moonthron delivered to him by a ‘death bringer spirit in the shape of a white wolf’. After 3 demos and a split Alghazanth released their first full length The Aeons Envenomed Sanity in 1999 and it was demonic praise to the unholy. Now Alghazanth completes their sizable discography with this 8th full length. The aptly named Eight Coffin Nails is in fact the nail in the coffin for this legendary Finnish band. An accumulation of 13 years of occultist symphonic black metal brings us to this funeral album.
A band playing songs in tribute to other bands can be a risky move when you consider the rabid fan base of the band being covered and how they might receive a new take on their favorite songs. To formulate an entire EP of tributes to three of the most influential Finnish folk/death metal bands is even more risky.
As expected, Two Paths begins with the typical Ensiferum intro that starts every album, building the anticipation for the thrust into the moshing music defined by the double kicks, the fast guitar riffs and the gang chants. Brass fanfare and hoarse vocals bring us full circle into the standard Ensiferum album. The listener is encouraged to shout and raise their swords, but not for too long as the fats paced parts are quickly intersected with slower choruses and melodies. After 16 years of cranking out high energy folk metal anthems, maybe the band is anticipating the aging of their fan base and making sure it is possible to catch a breath after a quick jaunt in the pit.
Dark Tranquility, one of the more prominent Swedish melodic death metal bands, has been dishing out one great album after another since their 1993 release Skydancer. For 13 years they have been defining the genre, so it is completely disheartening to hear their latest album, Atoma. The meat, albeit bland, is definitely in the middle of the album: “Neutrality,” “Clearing Skies,” and “When the World Screams,” have the elements of a classic DT song: the speed and the energy a longtime fan has come to expect.