Band:	Ixion
Album:	Evolution
Style:	Atmospheric doom metal
Release date:	October 25, 2024
A review by:	BitterCOld

Disc I
01. The Withering Of The Flesh
02. In Fear Of The Machines
03. The Weight Of Ignorance
04. A Chimeric Dream Part 1
05. Afterlife

Disc II
01. The Laws Of Life
02. Breaking The Code
03. A Chimeric Dream Part 2
04. The Advent
05. Turning Point

Disc III
01. Give Up The Ghost And Open Your Eyes
02. Second Birth
03. The First Outing
04. Shades Of Time
05. Necropolis
06. In Search Of The Absolute

I know I’m a bit of an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a, uh, something else. Inscrutable. But I’m getting to make myself vulnerable here and open up with a tiny glimpse into me.

I like doom metal and I like beer. IPAs, in particular. Shocking, I know. And, generally speaking, my tastes in Doom and IPAs are fairly similar – I lean towards the heavier ones, especially the dank kind.

Evolution, by Ixion is more of a lighter Session Doom Pale Ale.

I’ve been listening to the band since Collin was feeling lazy and bumped To The Void my way for a review back in ’11. I really enjoyed their brand of cosmic atmospheric doom and have followed them along their journey.

For Evolution the doom is left further and further in the rear-view mirror as the band, well, continue to evolve their sound. The cosmic-atmospheric vibe takes more of the stage, blending growled vocals with plenty of clean, doomriffing passages countered by atmospheric lingering keys and synth melodies. At times it sounds like To The Void and at other times it maintains the same melancholic mood, but the music sounds more like something off Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration or Music For The Masses (Both of which are fantastic albums, btw). Other times some components sound like they were plucked from Tom Baker-era Doctor Who.

All of this fits well with the three-act theme of the album. Extinction – Adios, muchachos, humanity’s time has come and it’s 1347 all over again. Restriction – Rise of the Machines. Robots! Androids!. Finally Regeneration – a/k/a my preferred ending to the Mass Effect saga. Synthesis. Transferring our consciousness into new biotechnological bodies. The music morphs from closer to their traditional flavor of doom to a little more Whovian before merging together a bit as we advance along the plot.

And it all sounds terrific. With the weather here being a shade above freezing as of late, grey skies, it’s been the perfect sonic accompaniment to my strolls around my new settings. Perfect music for a COld gray day.

It’s a hard album for me to write about in the sense it’s more cerebral rather than visceral. Visceral means lots of evocative, descriptive language, whereas trying coalesce thoughts into words with a release like this is a far more nebulous task. And I don’t think my words are quite up to their music.

If you’re open to some atmo doompeche mode, block off some time some gray, lazy afternoon and try Breaking The Code on Bandcamp.