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Visualizzazione post con etichetta Aornos. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta Aornos. Mostra tutti i post

lunedì 15 agosto 2022

Prometheus - Aornos

#FOR FANS OF: Atmospheric Black/Death
The Greek trio Prometheus returns two years after its crushing 'Resonant Echoes from Cosmos of Old' with a new opus, hopefully destinated to confirm the strengths found in the aforementioned album. The line-up has suffered only a change, although a quite important one, as the vocalist Aggelos was replaced in 2021 by Meleager, who is part of the also interesting project Archemoron.

Prometheus mixes black and death metal influences with certain atmospheric touches. If in the previous album, I noticed there was a great contrast between the first part, which was more brutal and sinister, and the second, where the atmospheric touch has a more prominent role, I can definitely say that Prometheus new opus continues to have this clear contrast between compositions. 'Aornos', the name of the new beast, begins with a short and nice intro, despite the real beginning is the second and brutal track "The Devouring Chasm", where Prometheus effortlessly mixes black and death metal influenced riffs. The mentioned contrast is clear as certain riffs are truly heavy, while the black metal ones have a classic tremolo style. Furthermore, the track also has some atmospheric keys, which enrich the composition and highlight the difference between the most melodic and smashing sides of Prometheus music. The new vocalist Meleager does sound a bit different, being his growls not as deep as the former singer’s ones, although they are quite competent. Apart from this, I appreciate his effort to add more nuances to his vocal performance, with black metal influenced shrieks and also some cleaner voices, which sound quite phantasmagorical. The subsequent tracks "Slithering Tongue and Lethe" and "Mnemosyne", leaving behind the fact that the later one has an atmospheric/folk intro and an ambient outro, sound closer to the most brutal side of Prometheus music. The death metal tendence is quite clear, as both the demolishing drums and the heavy riffage follow the patterns of this genre. In any case, the track also includes some typical black metal riffing which is adequately included in both compositions. As it happened in 'Resonant Echoes from Cosmos of Old', the second half of the album brings back some of the atmosphere we enjoyed in the album opener. The track "Vessel of Empiricism" is clearly the slowest track of the whole album, with a strong atmospheric flavour, a quite peculiar vocal approach, and an interesting guitar work, which includes some captivating melodies. The album comes to its end with an epic composition divided in two parts, "The Alpha and the Omega Revealed". The fast pace returns in the first part in a composition that breaks the usual balance between death and black metal, which a sound clearly tending to the later one. The guitar work is again quite interesting and enjoyable, as it adapts to the changing pace of the composition, even though it always sounds quite melodic. The second half still has a strong black metal approach, but also includes some riffs which sound closer to the death metal genre and they even have some dissonance at moments. Thanks to its remarkable length the song has many ups and downs in its pace and a quite varied vocal performance and structure. Moreover, it also includes some atmospheric keys again which makes me happy, as I have already mentioned in the previous album, that Prometheus always includes simple yet quality key sections.

'Aornos' is definitively a solid continuation to the excellent 'Resonant Echoes from Cosmos of Old' despite the fact that it doesn’t sound as inspired as the previous album. Stylistically it is perhaps a better-balanced effort, but I feel, and this is totally subjective, that the strongest moments of that album might be greater that the ones we find here. In any case, this is a very good album of black/death metal with excellent compositions and great work behind it. (Alain González Artola)

(I, Voidhanger Records - 2022)
Score: 80

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/aornos 

sabato 29 settembre 2018

Aornos - The Great Scorn

#PER CHI AMA: Cosmic Black, Darkspace, Deathspell Omega
Nella cittadina di Miskolc, ho trascorso qualche giorno lo scorso anno, per motivi lavorativi. Mai mi sarei immaginato che potesse essere la casa di questo progetto oscuro a nome Aornos. Trattasi di una one-man-band, con 'The Great Scorn' a rappresentare il quarto album per il mastermind ungherese. Il suono proposto da Tátrai Csaba (in arte Algras, peraltro, ex membro di Carcharoth e Bornholm) include elementi black e progressive, dalle forti venature cosmiche che chiamano immediatamente in causa gli svizzeri Darkspace. La musica è originale, combinando in modo inusuale, flussi disarmonici con sprazzi di grande atmosfera, come dimostrato dalla seconda "From a Higher Reality" che segue a ruota l'intro iniziale. Accanto allo screaming efferato del vocalist, si affianca poi un cantato più epico, sorretto tra l'altro da delle chitarre che per certi versi mi hanno ricordato i Windir. Sto parlando della terza traccia, "The Kingdom of Nemesis", in cui i vocalismi al vetriolo di Algras, sono sorretti da delle chitarre old school nella vena della tradizione black norvegese (Emperor e Satyricon) e da synth a tratti davvero ispirati. Più thrash oriented invece "Trace to Beckoning Fade", anche se nella seconda parte emergono influenze più vicine ad un epic in stile Bathory. Ma sono soltanto lontane reminiscenze che s'intersecano con il chitarrismo più tradizionale del musicista ungherese, che comunque si conferma abile nel creare ritmiche cupissime inserite in un contesto a tratti claustrofobico. Algras però affonda le sue influenze non solo nella fiamma nera che bruciava negli anni '90 in Norvegia, sento infatti dell'altro nelle linee sghembe della sua chitarra: suggestioni oblique dei Deathspell Omega così come l'aura maligna dei Dødsengel o la carica mistica dei Nightbringer. C'è tanto nelle note contorte di 'The Great Scorn': il mid tempo della title track vive ad esempio di interessanti cambi di tempo, mentre "Funeral March for the Death of the Earth" sembra mostrare una vena più sinfonica vicina ai Limbonic Art e vocalmente, ai primissimi Arcturus. Insomma, l'avrete capito, Algras ha voluto omaggiare i grandi maestri del passato nordico, tributando altre grandi band black del presente, il tutto peraltro trattando temi noetici, ossia relativi alle correlazioni tra mondo fisico e la mente umana, e come essa possa influenzare determinati avvenimenti o processi fisici. La fiamma nera brucia anche nelle campagne dell'Ungheria grazie agli Aornos. (Francesco Scarci)

(Symbol of Domination/Ira Aeterna/The True Plague/Black Metal Records - 2018)
Voto: 70

https://symbolofdomination.bandcamp.com/album/sodp108-aornos-the-great-scorn-2018