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Aenaon: Phenomenon
22/01/10 || cadenz
Aenaon is Greek for eternal, or “that which lasts forever”. In Finnish “Aina on” (or “aena on” in an Eastern, Savo accent) means “always is”. I’m thinking linguists have missed a connection here. What the fuck this has to do with the music is beyond anyone. Even me. In any fucken case, our Mediterranean heroes have unleashed their first release, an EP titled “Phenomenon”. Formed in 2005, Aenaon spurt out some chaotic black/death metal that nods heavily in the Emperor direction, though we’re absolutely not talking about a clone here.
Disharmonic, disquiet and distressed guitar riffs with lots of tremolo picking carry the workload, with the drumming supporting the string attacks in the same uneasy manner. A few moodier passages, some harmonic melodies and the odd thrashier riff bring a little diversity to the table, but it’s quite clear what Aenaon are after. Technicality and progressiveness are found aplenty, and their vision is quite clear. It’s refreshing to hear a band’s first release and see that they’ve already found their style and know how to express their vision through their instruments and throats.
Speaking of juguli; Astrous, the vocalist, appears also to sport some Ihsahn fandom. His mid- to high-pitched rasps and shrieks remind a lot of the genius’ from Notodden oral output, though meatier and less nasal Asstrous’ growls be. Multi-layered beyond my immediate liking, the vocal department is still very good, though he can work on his pronunciation for more points from me. The other musicians pull off their stuff very nicely indeed, and that is absolutely elemental when playing this kind of thick, demanding and entropic maze of metal music.
The production on “Phenomenon” is OK but has some flaws, especially at first listen. You can hear everything clearly, which is a plus; but the guitars are little too middle-y which makes them sound muffled and they become just a little bit too loud in the mix at times. The bass is audible, which deserves another nod of approval, but I don’t care that much for the drum sound, which is very sterile and quite triggered. The snare is too fore-front in fast passages and the ride cymbal also jumps out of the speakers like an angry pixie. The overall sound picture is functional, though, and you get used to it after a while so the production doesn’t drag down the music. Too much.
Overall this is a very interesting debut release, and I’ll surely check out Aenaon’s coming releases. Chaos-inspired lyrics that remind me of Arcturus’ interstellar writings complete Aenaon’s enigmatic puzzle with even more loose ends:
Where time is but a loop,
a loose stitch in the Universal Cloth,
a Streamer might seize upon a chance, a fatal slip,
and plunge the fate of planets into chaos…
Then, a shivering light
will appear through the shrunken cosmic dust,
and explode into an extradimensional wall, respawning the ultimate Universe…
- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Bleak Art Records
- Website: Aenaon MySpace
- Band
- Astrous: vocals
- Draugen: guitars
- Dagwn: guitars
- Thyragon: bass
- Vanghmar: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Et in Arcadia Ego
- 02. Perdition, a New Era
- 03. The Virus Code
- 04. And… Chaos Enthroned
- 05. Navel
- 06. Extradimensional Wall
