Aeonian Sorrow – Katara
Release Date:1st November 2023
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Gothic Metal, Doom Metal, Melodic Death Metal.
FFO: Draconian, Daylight Dies, Swallow the Sun, Frayle, The Answer Lies in the Black Void.
Review By: Mark Waight
If you like me are a lover of atmospheric doom-laden music with a dark gothic twist, then Aeonian Sorrow will very much appeal to the melancholy spirit within your blackened heart. Katara is an epic series of spell bindingly bleak songs full of grief and pain for the human condition and the complete misery and desperation in which many of us constantly live.
Aeonian Sorrow are a Greek/Finnish band formed in 2015 with several line-up changes before arriving at the current 2023 entity of Joel Notkonen (vocals), Gogo Melone (vocals, songwriting, keyboards), Taneli Jamsa (guitars), Achilleas Papagrigoriou (drums), Jukka Jauhiainen (guitars) and Oskar Englund (session studio bass).
Our journey begins with Anemos, a wonderfully woeful tune which drifts along somewhere between grey and black. The vocals sweetly weep with emotion in unison with some beautiful keyboard melodies until everything is finally painted completely black!
Elumia is very heavy on the atmosphere and the bass, growling primeval male vocals compete with pure angelic female vocals for complete supremacy. Light just about wins this battle, but the darkness is not over yet!
Some deft guitar playing rises out of the Ashes and Death to create a sombre mood with this superb lament. A mighty fine piece of music that will drag you right down to the fiery pits of hell! Her Torment is plain for all to hear in this gothic horror tale of self-torture and self-loathing. Complete despair is not done with us yet, as we close out with some ancient style chants!
Title track Katara is an epic composition of different threads of music beautifully woven together by Aeonian Sorrow to create a Doom Metal masterpiece in their own image. The emotion they put into everything is there for all to see and appreciate.
Forbidden Cry begins with a lovely orchestral arrangement which enhances and heightens the senses. The pace slows right down to a crawl at times where the female vocals now are as cold as a grave and fully equal to the guttural male ones. A softer guitar melody adds a little ray of light and hope to this otherwise gloriously grim song.
Final track Ikuinen Suru strips things right back with dreamy crystal-clear vocals and a solitary piano taking you by the hand and leading you slowly back from the brink and into the light. The blackness has passed, and we are back, what a trip!
If you are after something light and uplifting then Katara by Aeonian Sorrow is not for you, but if on the other hand you are after something that is very engaging on an emotional scale and will resonate with your inner soul then this is an album that should certainly be on your radar.
Katara by Aeonian Sorrow is a great album to wind down to at the end of a long and stressful day or in the middle of a sleepless night, as it will bring you right down to a base level of connection with your pre-historic inner being by unlocking your long-suppressed senses and kicking them back into action. Katara is not for the feint hearted but comes highly recommended by me!
(4 / 5)
