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AEON > An Extravagance of Norm > Reviews
AEON - An Extravagance of Norm

mostly norm, not so extravagant - 55%

Noktorn, June 12th, 2011

These guys just fail to convince me. There's something about AEON which rubs me the wrong way- a sort of smug self-assuredness which pervades the music and makes me want to dislike them. AEON makes black metal like they know some certain secret about it that you don't, and they use very basic musical tricks to make it seem like they know more than they do. Darkthrone-style strum riffs with little arpeggios tucked in? Yeah guys, Thorns did that a long time ago. Phrases that begin in a dissonant manner but resolve melodically? Taake already knows that one. Constantly changing rhythms and melodic ideas to keep the listener guessing? Okay, I'm pretty sure Cryptopsy did that, you know, since their inception. AEON plays black metal like they're actively competing against other bands, which I would ordinarily applaud, but I think they believe themselves so far ahead of the pack that I can't help but want to see them fail.

AEON reminds me significantly of the later output of Aborym and Dødheimsgard. Not in that they have any sort of bullshit electronic or industrial influences, but in that the black metal between the dumb (U)IDM passages sounds a lot like this. AEON seems to want to borrow a lot of the keening, spacious dissonance of Thorns without putting the work into making riffs that sound as genuinely alien as that band, so what you get are a lot of very normal black metal riffs that are aesthetically shifted around a little bit. Harsh, dissonant chord shapes are used (but moved around the fretboard in a very standard way,) lots of dissonant arpeggios are tossed into the middle of riffs, and there's a lot of abrupt, stop/start rhythms employed- in short, a ton of the guitarwork on this album sounds like a gussied-up Dark Funeral ('Apostate Manifesto' is a pretty obvious example of this.) They're not bad- nothing on this album is actually bad- there's just a very transparent attempt to impress the listener that will probably fall flat if you've been listening to black metal for more than a couple years.

And what's up with the drumming? Any time the pace dips below a blast the programmer (apparently, I will say that the programming is extremely convincingly human) feels the need to add a bunch of convoluted crossovers and bizarre fills where more straightforward work would serve the music better. In an effort to make the drumwork complicated and interesting, it just ends up fighting with the guitars for dominance a lot of the time, and with even the bass in on the pretentious action, there's just too much going on a lot of the time for the listener to really get a grip on what the band is trying to express. Of course, that assumes that the band is trying to express something in particular, which I don't really think they are. Between the stretches of fairly conventional black metal, AEON dips into moments of death metal, prog, and even the occasional bit of post-thrash grooving, but none of these elements add up to any sort of personality for the band. There's a ton going on but it's not actually progressing anywhere, which makes this an incredibly unsatisfying listen.

It's all listenable, yes, and the production is good, and the instrumental skill is fine, and the song structures aren't actively irritating, but there's nothing that drives me to actually listen to this. If you strip away all the obviously 'experimental' elements on this release, you're left with a black metal album that sounds like just about every other black metal album from the last decade, and that's not enough for me.

Accessible experimental metal - 90%

harvestman, October 10th, 2008

Very nice. Another interesting band emerges from the Polish scene. They are playing a style of music that falls somewhere in between a lot of different genres, although black metal is probably the best fit. Like a lot of the more recent Polish exports, AEON makes liberal use of dissonance. There are a lot of nice riffs in here, with some atonal, almost jazzy chords that remind me of Ved Buens Ende. Even the tremolo-picked riffs are interesting. Chunky death metal riffs occasionally make an appearance, too. Sometimes the music takes on a spacey, slightly cyber-metal feel, and these are the moments I like best. The vocals are closer to a death metal growl than a black metal shriek--nothing special, although they don't detract at all from the music. Any fan of experimental metal will find something to interest them in this album.

Overall, the music is pretty accessible, despite its experimental tendencies. This is a strength, but also a weakness. I enjoy this album a lot, but there's a mildness to it that keeps me from getting overly enthusiastic. There are many riffs that I can tell are very cool, but that end up sounding a little bland. I'm not sure if the production is at fault--it's nice and clear, but also a bit flat and lacking in depth--or if there is a certain complexity missing from the music. In a way, the music is a little too subtle. The experimentation needs to be a little more aggressive and in-your-face. There are a lot of ideas in here, though, and the band is clearly talented. Definitely a band with a lot of potential.