Aephanemer - Utopie - review
Aephanemer - Utopie - review
Tracklist
01. Échos D'un Monde Perdu02. Le Cimetière Marin
03. La Règle Du Jeu
04. Par-Delà Le Mur Des Siècles
05. Chimère
06. Contrepoint
07. La Rivière Souterraine
08. Utopie (Partie I)
09. Utopie (Partie II)
A review by
musclassia November 12, 2025
This change remarkably comes in spite of a downsizing of the French band’s line-up, with bassist Lucie Hune leaving in 2023; band founder Martin Hamiche is credited with all stringed instruments on Utopie alongside orchestrations, although the group have a fourth member in their live roster due to the implausibility of effectively rendering music as grandiose as this with just a three-piece. Aside from Hune’s departure, Utopie mostly carries on where A Dream Of Wilderness left off, with a Dan Swanö mix once more and glorious artwork (this time from Andreas Marshall) matching the radiance of the band’s composition.
It's funny, having listened through the record a few times while taking notes, to go back to my review of A Dream Of Wilderness and see several points I raised there that I was planning to discuss here. The comparisons to Ensiferum, Wintersun and Mors Principium Est continue to feel relevant, and in spite of the album’s frequent use of blasts and guitar tremolos, I would hesitate to consider its sound as anything close to black metal outside of specific snippets (such as a post-chorus riff in “Contrepoint”). That said, the overall sound of the record has evolved in some ways from its predecessor.
I feel that ‘folkish symphonic melodeath’ is as succinct a label as one could realistically come up with, and the symphonic orchestrations have been expanded upon this time around. While there’s none of the operatic vocals heard like in the previous album’s “Antigone”, there’s persistent symphonic presence in the form of arrangements impersonating strings, flutes and chorals, whether taking a central role (such as in the short intro piece “Échos D'un Monde Perdu” or various snippets within tracks, most notably the extended multi-minute intro to “Utopie (Partie I)”), or working in tandem with the metal. The flute sounds pair very nicely with the guitar lead hooks and motifs in songs such as “Le Cimetière Marin”, and the grandeur of certain moments where the metal and orchestrations collide (one moment halfway into “Utopie (Partie II)” instantly comes to mind) is really striking. To go with this, the guitars exhibit a real neoclassical edge in moments, such as when a guitar solo takes over the elaborate piano solo at the beginning of “La Rivière Souterraine”.
The guitar arrangements are frequently more in the form of Mors Principium Est-style lead guitar motifs, riffs and harmonies more so than chord riffs, and then there’s plenty of solos on top of that. Those lead guitar parts often have a folkish touch to them; the verses of “La Règle Du Jeu” have a heavy latter-day Ensiferum feel to them, while the opening to “Par-Delà Le Mur Des Siècles” feels like it could have come right off of Thalassic. In contrast, the emphatic blasting opening to “Chimère” sounds more like something from Wintersun, with an earlier Equilibrium feel to the chorus. There’s also a few moments with shades of Amorphis, like the solo of “Le Cimetière Marin”. There’s healthy doses of melody throughout the album, although Marion Bascoul sticks to her harsh shrieked vocal style throughout.
All that melody pays off in spades, as Utopie is a feast of memorable and exhilarating hooks. The opening streak of the record is very strong, with the delightful mix of fast and slower hooks in “Par-Delà Le Mur Des Siècles” particularly charming me. There’s some really cool tom-heavy drum patterns at mid-track moments in this song and “Chimère” that add an enjoyable different dimension, and this latter cut makes great use of more grandstand slower feels in the chorus and solo, before bringing the blasts for the final chorus.
“Contrepoint” delivers more great hooks, as well as some variety in its memorable moments; on top of the aforementioned blackened riff, there’s also a brief yet snazzy bass solo, as well as some organ-style sounds in its symphonic moments. These segments do all come in a flurry, admittedly, and provide a good example of one of the few minor bugbears I have with the album, namely that songs can be overly stop-start chop-changing between sections, with multiple mid-song pauses within a 4-minute track that disrupt the flow a bit. The two-part title track in particular has some issues with flow from excessive shifts between different ideas and pauses in between, moving into multiple brief orchestral-only passages that fluctuate back between grand metal hooks in a way that starts to diminish their impact.
With that said, the strength of the overwhelming majority of the album’s ideas means that I only really find this to be a gripe on more attentive listens, as the contrast stream of entertainment more than distracts the senses otherwise. Furthermore, the flow between song sections is still very well structured in most cases, and Aephanemer do a sterling job of crafting an intricate multi-phase song with the sumptuous “La Rivière Souterraine”, an 8-minute instrumental with a smorgasbord of neatly phrased riffs, lush dark folk melodies, scintillating neoclassical leads and thrilling solos, all wrapped up with a lovely closing piano flourish. It’s a great vehicle exhibiting the numerous strengths of this band in all their glory.
This is the kind of bold, dramatic statement that leaves one wondering how Aephanemer could ratchet things up any further going forward; perhaps they’ll try a full orchestral accompaniment next time, or maybe the next move might be to dial things down a tad and explore some slight variety in tone by attempting to make this sound similarly appealing at slow tempos. However, for now we stand at a zenith of utopia and revel in the band’s achievements here.
Written on 12.11.2025 by
Written on 12.11.2025 by
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Early Equilibrium came to mind a lot when listening to this, but I personally preferred the instrumental version. The vocals didn't offer too much and it really felt like it was lacking some quality cleans, overall too monotonous.
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