It’s very hard for me to get impressed by a new band. Is it because the endless supply of new music, is it because there is a lack of originality, is it because I need something more than just good? Aeonian Sorrow thought, is a big exception. I loved their debut album “Into The Eternity A Moment We Are” and I still listen to it quite often. Two years after that, Gogo Melone and her bandmates return with a new EP.
At first, there are some line-up changes. Drummer Saku Moilanen (Godflesh Deformed, Red Moon Architect) left and the multi-instrumentalist Daniel Neagoe from Romania came (Clouds + more), a prominent member of the doom/death scene the last years. Colombian Alejandro Lotero on vocals gave his place to Ville Rutanen (Red Moon Architect) and Jukka Jauhiainen (Crimson Sun, Red Moon Architect) came as a second guitar player. The name of Red Moon Architect from Finland keeps appearing, as in them also play the other guitarist Taneli Jämsä and the bassist Pyry Hanski on live shows.
As for the music, the elements of the debut album are combined to form something majestic. “A Life Without” has four songs, with total duration a bit over thirty minutes. The melancholic keys in the opener “The Endless Fall Of Grief” don’t bode what is about to follow, as the growls of Rutanen are from another world, without any effect on them. The guitars that follow on funeral doom tempos with their dark melodies create an amazing result and after a short break with keys, the ethereal voice of Gogo joins before leaving the job to the beast Rutanen until the end.
The EP continues in similar style with “One Love”, but with Gogo having more time on her own. “My Solitude” is the shortest one from the rest (only…seven minutes) and it’s my favorite, as it has a slightly faster tempo. It still remains doom though, with great melodies and melancholic atmosphere. The final one is “Hopeless Suicide”, again in funeral tempo, with Gogo giving a breathtaking performance in the middle of it that I can’t find words to describe.
So, Aeonian Sorrow are doing a tremendous work. It’s the atmospheric doom/death metal at its best with gripping songs despite their long duration. Dark melodies, melancholic atmosphere, changes between brutal male and ethereal female vocals and high-level compositions. The production of Saku Moilanen is excellent, the artwork by Gogo is, once more, amazing and the same applies to the lyrics. An overall great release. Is it far until the next full-length?
For The Fans Of: Draconian, Swallow The Sun, Red Moon Architect
