Construality

Do you ever get the feeling that all the various subgenres of metal are starting to congeal together? Yeah, I know what you're thinking, 'But there are more subgenres now than ever in the history of metal!' True, except they all sound the same nowadays. This can most clearly be seen in the line (or lack thereof) between death and black metal. My god, Euronymous must be spinning in his grave if he's reading this review. What could be a more perfect example of this phenomena than a little German band named Aeveron?

For those of you that aren't aware of what the kids are listening to these days (with their rap and hip-hap and crack smoking) Aeveron is a melodic death/black metal band with influences from, you guessed it, every band in the universe. There's Keep Of Kalessin, there's Dark Tranquillity, there's In Flames, there's Slayer; theoretically, everything anyone could want from a band in one bite-sized package named 'Construality'. We have a healthy mix of Gothenburg-style growls and clean vocals, melodic lead guitar (though, to the album's credit, not such blatant Iron Maiden worship as Aeveron's cousins to the north are guilty of), and a healthy amount of double bass drumming.

'Construality' generally works fairly well simply due to professionalism. Listening to this album let's you know everything about the band: they've clearly done their homework, not only on talented instrumentalism, but on effective songwriting. The songs almost seem scientifically engineered to sound good to the average listener, using tried-and-true techniques such as acoustic breaks hook-laden lead guitar to ensnare the listener. When taken at face value, 'Construality' is an excellent album. When taken in the context of a metal listener, however, it becomes a tad flatter.

The central problem of 'Construality' is a simple lack of material. Not in pure content, no; 'Construality' weighs in at over 40 minutes, so that's not the problem. The issue at hand is what MEANINGFUL content is in each song. Upon listening, it's fairly obvious that each song is based around one or two ideas, stretched out over a period of three to six minutes. The examples are remarkably obvious: the acoustic portion that opens 'Trapped Within Me', the main melody to the title track, or the harmonizing leads of 'Nocturnal Skies' are so obviously the central ideas of the songs as to almost become parodies of themselves. A band like Deicide can get away with this because they are able to distract the listener sufficiently so as to not tip their hand; Aeveron, as a relatively new band, does not yet have that skill. In a way, it resembles the flaws that plagued early Dark Tranquillity (although said band seemed to do this with an almost palpable malice towards the listener), where neither band really knows what to do between ideas, and ends up meandering between stock melodic phrases.

At this point, Aeveron is faced with two viable options: become a grindcore band, where single ideas can be used in microsongs that carry the message swiftly and efficiently, or let their tracks simmer in satan's crock pot a tad longer. Aeveron is by no means a bad band; but more focus is needed on making the songs conceptual entities if they want to achieve the greatness they so clearly aspire to.

(Originally written for www.vampire-magazine.com)