Aeon – Aeons Black

Band: Aeon
Album: Aeons Black
Record Label: Metal Blade
Release Date: 20th November 2012
Reviewed By: Mark

Aeon is the final album I said I would review for the time being and I must admit one of the reasons I picked it was because it is released by Metal Blade and they don’t really do bad bands/albums as a principle. So anyway back to the review, Aeon are a Swedish death metal band and this is their 4th release. However they don’t play Swedish Death Metal, instead they are more influenced by the early Florida scene, for all the newbie’s that is Deicide, Death, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Malevolent Creation, Monstrosity…i.e all the great bands of the genre!!! The thing I will say about Aeon is that they aren’t new or original or pushing boundaries, however they are damn brutal and heavy.

“Still They Prey” is a great introduction to the album and I was highly surprised that the production was so clean and crisp but the brutality of the music doesn’t suffer at all. The music is more Morbid Angel in the Covenant & Damnation era with hints of early Deicide. They can slow it down with heavy death chocking riffs and then shred your face off with a brutal riff, the bass is there but pummels along and is like the roadie of a band. Never really seen or heard but does a solid job that needs doing or everything will fail. The drumming is also exceptional and beats the listener either slowly when they want to or hard, fast and brutally when they desire. However the most brutal part of Aeon’s arsenal is the vocalist who has a powerful low guttural growl that he mixes with a shredding spiteful high scream. The vocalist is a rare breed though like Glenn Benton and Dave Vincent etc, they are powerful brutal vocalist but their lyrics are clear and you can hear every hate filled word being shouted at you.

This is 15 tracks of brutal death metal that I would recommend to any fans of the genre and even the three interlude tracks bring something different to the album. “The Voices of the Accuser” is symphonic, while “Neptune the Mystic” is a short brutal riff-fest and “Aftermath” brings a dark ambient feel to the album. These interlude tracks allow the listener to take a needed break from the brutal sonic onslaught of Aeons Black. However one of the best tracks on the album has to be “I Wish You Death” which I recommend any fans of extreme metal to listen to.

Aeon are undoubtedly very talented musicians and the song writing is fantastic as each song engulfs your eardrums with it maddening and crushing fury. My only slight problem would be that Aeons Black comes in at 51 minutes and although it doesn’t feel like you have had your cranium crushed for that long I think they could have shortened the album a little, which would have made it more intense. They could have made two albums if they added a few more songs to this collection of songs!!!

SCORE – 7.5/10