AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AEONIAN SORROW — “KATARA”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Oct 312023
 

In the Pindus mountains of northern Greece there is a pass called Katara. We are told that according to the legend, “Katara got its name from a despot who around 1800 set out from Ioannina to go to Trikala city, but the bad weather in the area made it so difficult for him that he died on the way and he cursed the mountain”.

Many tragic stories have been written about this pass, and the Greek/Finnish doom-metal collective Aeonian Sorrow have now written their own, although their new album Katara, which will be released tomorrow, includes other stories as well — and it is dedicated to the memory of Georgia and Michail, beloved grandparents of the band’s singer Gogo Melone.

The lyric stories included in Katara do vary across the album’s seven substantial songs, all of them heart-felt, but they are stories of deep loss, despair, and anger — heart-breaking and harrowing, as well as heart-felt. Gogo has explained how they all came to be: Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: BLACK CURSE, HORNWOOD FELL, CZERŃ, LESSER GLOW, TERRESTRIAL HOSPICE, AEONIAN SORROW-CLOUDS, THE COMET IS COMING, AYYUR, HEGEMONY

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 092020
 

 

Here we go again. I decided not to alphabetize the bands today, but focused instead on structuring this a bit like a playlist of new music, with some ebb and flow and movement among genres as you go through it. I also threw in a curveball, as you’ll see.

BLACK CURSE (U.S.)

Chaotic, violent black/death with mutilating levels of distortion and explosive skull-busting rhythms, coupled with an amalgam of malevolent roars, grotesque growls, unhinged shrieks, and freaked-out, ear-shredding leads. The music also devolves into massive doom stomps saturated by musical misery and accented by gouts of splintering pain. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: AEONIAN SORROW, ARCANE SANCTUARY, BARISHI, CARNAL SAVAGERY, DECAYING, HAIL SPIRIT NOIR, HYZZTEREZIS, LIGHTNING BOLT, ORANSSI PAZUZU, PARADISE LOST, THE RUINS OF BEVERAST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 242020
 

 

For reasons I can’t identify, these days I feel compelled to throw as much music your way as I can. I’ve noticed that, contrary to my expectations, this unnerving shut-in phase that most of us are going through has led to a significant increase in daily visits to our site. Maybe people need music more than usual to get through these dark days. Maybe that’s the source of my greater-than-usual compulsion.

Whatever the reason, it seems like you’ll be seeing more and more of these big compilations (with brevity of words) rather than the more typical SEEN AND HEARD posts. I hope I can do another one tomorrow, because I still have a lot I want to recommend.

AEONIAN SORROW (Finland/Greece)

A beautifully contrasting experience from this multinational funeral doom band, the song juxtaposes graceful and ethereal sounds of mist and mysticism and episodes of ravaging heaviness and splintering sorrow, combining the most harrowing roars and haunting feminine singing, creating moods of stately bereavement and wrenching frenzy. A really beautifully executed new video, too. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AEONIAN SORROW — “A LIFE WITHOUT”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 272020
 

 

Lovers of enthralling musical misery and cathartic, crushing power have a prize awaiting them on the near horizon, because on January 27th the multinational funeral doom band Aeonian Sorrow will release a mesmerizing and majestically tragic new record named A Life Without, which we are streaming in its entirety today.

This new release follows the band’s 2017 single, “Forever Misery“, and their 2018 debut album Into The Eternity A Moment We Are, and reflects the work of a revised and solidified line-up. For this recording, the band’s founder Gogo Melone (singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and lyricist) was joined by harsh vocalist Ville Rutanen (Red Moon Architect), guitarist Jukka Jauhiainen (Red Moon Architect, Crimson Sun) and drummer Daniel Neagoe (Shape of Despair, Clouds, Eye of Solitude), in addition to previous guitarist Taneli Jämsä (Ghost Voyage, Hukutus) and bassist Pyry Hanski (Mörbid Vomit, Before the Dawn etc.).

While some might call the record an EP, its four tracks are each substantial in length, adding up to more than 35 minutes of dolorous and devastating sounds. And each track is an involving and overpowering experience, each one in its own way portraying (to quote the band) “the eternal sorrow and misery above the earth, the slow death of our souls plus our human nature and instincts under the ownership of grief and pain”. Continue reading »

AEONIAN SORROW: “INTO THE ETERNITY A MOMENT WE ARE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 192018
 

 

(Grant Skelton wrote this review of the debut album by the Greek/Finnish melodic doom metal band Aeonian Sorrow, released on March 28th.)

 

Aeonian Sorrow is the name of a new doom metal band masterminded by vocalist and songwriter Gogo Melone. Thanks to some networking via No Clean Singing’s ally Daniel Neagoe (Eye Of Solitude, Clouds), I had the pleasure of hearing Aeonian Sorrow’s debut, Into The Eternity A Moment We Are, prior to its release. With this album, fans of more melodic strains of doom metal are in for a gem. Also, make a point to behold the stirring wreckage depicted in the album’s art. Melone designed all of the band’s logos, and handled the album layout as well.

Joining Melone’s melancholic menagerie are drummer Saku Moilanen (Red Moon Architect), vocalist Alejandro Lotero (Exgenesis), guitarist Taneli Jämsä (Ghost Voyage, Hukutus), and bassist Pyry Hanski (Mörbid Vomit, Before the Dawn). From this creative collective were sewn seeds that would bring forth an entire orchard of languishing delights. Continue reading »