Band:	Aeon
Album:	Aeons Black
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	November 2012

01. Still They Pray
02. The Glowing Hate
03. The Voice Of The Accuser
04. I Wish You Death
05. Garden Of Sin
06. Neptune The Mystic
07. Nothing Left To Destroy
08. Passage To Hell
09. Aeons Black
10. Dead Means Dead
11. Sacrificed
12. Aftermath
13. Blessed By The Priest
14. Maze Of The Damned
15. Die By My Hands

Aeon's 4th full length is a brutal death metal assault with a heavy dose of groove. And you won't miss any of the complexity because of the remarkably clear production. In fact the production is so clear I feel like this band is in my living room.

Which is AWESOME.

Yet, consequently, because they're in my living room, I feel like they're watching me and if I turn to another album they'll get really pissed off and rape and gut me or something. Not that I WANT to listen to anything else. This 50-minute assault never drags and almost goes by too fast. The onslaught is divided into 15 tracks, 4 of which are instrumental interludes. This breaks things up perfectly and adds a touch more variety to the brutality; probably why I keep craving more.

Melodious riffs sneak in without you really comprehending that an interesting melody is upon you. Aeon's subtlety in this manner guides the listener in a mesmerized state through the density of the music. Yet at other times Aeon is anything but subtle and demands your attention with jarring tempo changes and piercing guitar solos.

Oh, the guitar solos. Their complex beauty provides the simplest of countermeasures to this brutality. My favorite is around the 3-minute mark on "Dead Means Dead"; the especially stunning solo appears like a shooting pain through your body then gently guides you back to the riffs.

Drummer Arttu Malkki also demonstrates plenty of style and range, changing it up frequently and showing intense brutality in a variety of ways. Blast beats and double bass sound like child's play for him and are just a small part of his skill set. His changing and driving rhythms are a huge part of why this music is so fascinating. But if you don't care about all that and just want a drum set begging for mercy at the end of an album, he's your guy.

Lastly, the intensity and clarity of the vocals is the primary reason why I feel Aeon is in my living room. Is it every day that you can really understand the majority of the lyrics on an average death metal album? I'm going to say NO for $500, Alex. Well, Tommy Dahlström, with his incredible vocal range, also delivers WORDS, phrases, and real sentences. They're mostly of the Christ- and Christian-bashing variety ("WHERE IS YOUR SAVIOR?!!! WHERE IS YOUR GOD?!!!") but what matters is we have real enunciation here.

Aeons Black is the band's 3rd collaboration with the illustrious Metal Blade Records and the team continues to release albums that satisfy both those demanding simple brutality and diverse complexity in their death metal. So lay out the welcome mat: Aeon is storming your living room.