ADON : "s/t"

 

There is no denying that this duo is bolstered by Decapitated drummer James Stewart. This aids in the stomp of the band's larger-than-life stomping grooves. The vocals are marginally more diabolical than your standard death metal, Deicide comes to mind in this regard, though they work off too grooving aggression to be black metal. Is there a black metal influence on the mood they are trying to create? Sure but it would be misleading your expectations of this album to paint it as being black metal. The guitar solos pretty much solidify their place as a death metal band. Sure the occasional blast beat crops up but that can be said of most death metal bands. 

Is there more of a storming the gates feel to the second song? Yes. But are the songs driven by a grandiose sense of aggression more than an introspective worship of darkness? Yes, this is what makes them a death metal band and not a black metal band. They do give thins room to breathe and set the stage for an even more epic chug to come. Melody wins out over dissonance, chaos or sorrow. The title track has an almost symphonic cadence to its sweeping grandiose orchestrations, at over 16 minutes perhaps excessively so. In the first five minutes, they have already unpacked a great deal of riff. None are really sticking with me, but they sound good for what they are. Seven minutes in it feels like things break down in such a manner it should be where the next song starts. There are a few blackened bits amid the sprawling entanglement of prog that unfurls. But nothing really sticks to me in a way that makes me want to invest another 16 minutes in the song again. 

"Azimuth" finds the riffs locking into a cool chug that they should have cut to the chase for on the previous song. This gives way to more blasting that is marginally more black metal than other moments that have come close to this sonic shade earlier in the album.  "Axiom" feels like an extension of the previous song if it sped up and decorated with more prog ambitions. Production-wise there is a very massive polished sound to this album so they are doing what they intended here. They close the album with an 11-minute epic, which seems excessive considering how the other long-winded song did not feel like the best investment of time.  This song however feels like it is jammed out more organically and makes sense rather than extra sections piled on to the point of excess.  I will give this album an 8, as there are strong moments, I am personally not a fan of some of it's excesses and feel other strengths could have been more focused on, but there is a demographic for what is happening here and the band made the album they sought to make so it works in that frame of reference. 

pst355