ADON – ADON
Release Date: 2nd August 2024
Label: Neuropa
Bandcamp
Genre: Melodic Blackened Death Metal
FFO: Necrophobic, Lord Belial, Belphegor.
Review By: Andy Spoon
U.S.-based ADON are set to formally release their 6-track LP, ADON, on Neuropa Records/distributing on August 2nd, 2024. The album features a mixture of black metal, melodic blackened death metal, and modern death metal from the band’s founding duo and the addition of drummer James Stewart of Decapitated and Vader pedigree. The overall tone of the album is a varied blend of righteous blackened death with melodic/symphonic overtones that doesn’t bore or insult its audience with platitudes or attempts to be better than it is; frankly, it’s just a great album that deserves your attention.
I can tell you right off the bat that this is properly-organized black/death metal. I don’t want to call it blackened death, which it technically is, although it bridges the gap in a way that I don’t know if I can describe. Hence, I will make an honest attempt, however. If anything, it sounds like a black metal band wanted to incorporate melodic or progressive earth metal tones, but still had to fill the quota for having a certain percentage of real kvlt black metal as part of the tone. Further, there’s not a shortage of groove moments that give you time to dig in and headbang.
Some of the tracks eclipse the ten-minute mark, something that I honestly love. I feel like breaking a movement into multiple tracks can sometimes take away from the ultimate presentation of the author’s intent, so to speak. Letting the audience know that the track is meant to be taken as a single movement has the effect of putting the listener in a state of mind in which they are prepared for something more substantial than a 3-minute romp. Instead, the listener ought to prepare for a full experience, dialing-in their attention for the length of the track.
This is particularly apt for the album’s title track, ADON, not to mention the Band’s namesake. I’ve always thought that if you are going to name a song after your band, it better be the baddest fucking track you’ve ever made. Imagine if someone pulled you aside and told you, Dude, come over my house and listen to this new track called Metallica. In your mind, you’d be incredulous, as you knew you were about to inevitably be let down. In the case of ADON, the namesake track is over 16 minutes long, something that speaks to its complexity, structure, and overall artistic intent. I thought that the track was well-crafted and musically-diverse from both a brutality aspect as well as a melodic standpoint. Will it be worthy of being the band’s own title track? Only time will tell, but I highly suggest you spin it and decide for yourself.
The vocals are absolutely something that comes from the black metal genre, with clenched-teeth, back-of-the throat croaks that speak to the obvious influences. However, the overall guitar and bass tone are largely deeper, fuller, and lean into the death metal influences. As I had mentioned before, there are also heavy groove elements in some places, peppered-in strategically as to give the listener some occasional breaks in the black/death. I also enjoyed the fact that there are brief interludes between movements that include symphonic, folksy (check out the flute section), or classically-influenced musical segments in between the heavier riffs and breakdowns. This brings quite a bit of diversity to the album, making it something that prevents its audience from getting lulled into some trance state.
ADON gives us quite a bit of material to digest. The founding duo released the album on their own in a promotional release, only to be picked up for distribution by Neuropa, something that generally doesn’t happen for bands that haven’t written their own ticket. I could go into a long tirade about how the record industry stifles bands, but I’ll spare you and just conclude by stating that if the album was good enough for a distributor to pick up on its own, it’s worth a listen for the likes of us metal fans. Generally, albums need to be significant for a label/distributor to want to take them on “as is”, something that should grab your attention, wherever it may be (in any genre).
(4.5 / 5)
