“Deep in the signs of Misery we are”… welcome to the doomed world of Aeonian Sorrow, where everything is about eternal suffering. Aeonian Sorrow started out in September 2015, released a digital single two years later and this spring saw the release of their full length debut.
The main theme of the bands music is well described by the title of the first song: Forever Misery. The album is about a man who has lost everything and everyone in the world, so it is not hard to guess that the lyrics are far from happy feelings.
“In the cold night, my open wounds are bleeding. The weakness mourns for my death, the echoes stayed to remind me I was alive.” Lyrically it is one big litany. Fitting with doom alright, but sometimes a bit to pretentious. It does not all have to be semi-poetry, so to say.
Singer and songwriter Gogo Melone says about the album that it is not ‘just another doom album’ and Aeonian Sorrow certainly not a ‘female fronted metal band’. Saying this is of course defying the gods and in this instance defying the reviewer. Let us say she is right and not right. The band has a male singer with low growls and Gogo herself takes on the female vocals. Yet the male vocals have the overhand, making the main sound of the band more doom and dark then a ‘standard’ female fronted band would … So there she is right and the good thing is the band does not promote itself with a big picture of the female singer and the males in the back. Hail for that! Opening song Forever Misery is a classic doomsong however. In a good way. Slow build up, heavy guitar chords, dark male vocals, nice use of the piano. Yet when the female vocals start I do start wondering: is this not ‘just another female fronted band…’? The female vocals seem a bit standard at the start.. Luckily Gogo’s voice is more diverse: sort of angelic and can turn towards a more spiritual sound.
It is nice to listen to all the long songs on this album – most of them last 7-9 minutes – it feels like one ongoing dark dream, where Memory of Love and The Wind of Silence give some moments of rest. The good thing about that is that it is no punishment at all to listen to this album. On the other hand, it is sometimes hard to distinguish the one song from the other.
For me this album is a good start for a band that can grow. It is absolutely a nice doom album, and the female vocals add to this in a nice way, but it could be made more interesting. Happy enough with this album, but can’t wait for some growth!
Aeonian Sorrow Official Website
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Banda muito inspirada nos Suecos Draconian.