Band:	Ixion
Album:	To The Void
Style:	Atmospheric doom metal
Release date:	February 28, 2011
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. Beyond The Skies
02. The Plague
03. Leaving
04. New Heaven
05. Fear Of The Hidden
06. Rebellion
07. Falling To Apathy
08. Funereal Dance
09. Soothing In Agony
10. Fade To Blue

To The Void marks the first proper full-length release from the doomed French duo, Ixion. They are described as "atmospheric doom" or "atmospheric funeral doom" or some such. This is a simplified, but fitting description. Given the choice of space imagery for the cover, why not go with the concept of a planet as a metaphor, no?

The core of their sound is basically slowed down doom with growled death vocals and crushing riffs that sound reminiscent of Ahab at times, with the kind of "stutter-step" delivery. Ixion wrap up the harsh package with some keyboard backgrounds to further the mood, as well as melodic piano over the top to perhaps soften it up a tad. They do well enough in this approach to make an interesting and good album, but why stop there?

So at the center you have the crushing frozen core, but rather than limit their approach to standard, tried and tr00, they've opted to surround said core with an ethereal atmosphere? lots of Mellow Moments? involving keyboards and electronic elements. The singer shifts it up from cookie monster to clean, lightly sung or even whispered vocals to further the mood. These segments help the sound capture the same vibe as the imagery.

The songs are not particularly long for the genre, mostly clocking in around the six-minute mark. Unlike my recent review of Septic Mind's Nachalo, where both the Mellow Moment? passages and the DOOOOOOOOOOOOM go on for extended periods, Ixion switch them up fairly regularly.

I guess there are lots of easy comparisons to perhaps give the uninitiated an idea of the overall sound (Mar De Grises, perhaps, for their masterful shifting of moods and styles), but to me this album almost sounded like a "What If?" game. What If Samael had, shortly after the release of Passage and the Exodus EP, opted to travel an Electro-doom path.

So a nice big "Merci Beaucoup*" goes to Collin for being too freaking lazy to review this and instead directing the band my way. I really enjoyed listening to the album, and it's one of those I'll continue to enjoy listening to long after this review is published and my "work" is done here. Thanks, Mon Ami.*



* Those familiar with my reviews and rambles should be aware I intentionally misspell any and all French words because I know it annoys Collin to no end. This release was so good that I temporarily backed away from butchering their language. For this review only.