Avernus – Grievances
Release Date: 20th September 2024
Label: M-Theory Audio
Bandcamp
Genre: Atmospheric Doom Metal, Death Metal, Funeral Doom, Goth Metal.
FFO: My Dying Bride, Swallow The Sun, Temple Of Void, Grain Of Pain, Paradise Lost, Hanging Garden, Spectral Voice.
Review By: Rick Farley
Established in 1992, Chicago, Illinois’s Avernus have spent the last thirty years being considered one of death/dooms premiere bands. Highly regarded and respected, but has laid dormant for far too long. Decades in the making, Avernus have returned with their crushing new album Grievances releasing September 20th, 2024, on M-Theory Audio.
A brief history lesson for the uninitiated, Avernus very early in their career caught the attention of Marco Barbieri, who at the time worked for Metal Blade Records. He was unable to sign them under the Metal Blade moniker, and Avernus went on to release their debut Of The Fallen in 1997 under a different label. Fast-forward to 2024, Marco Barbieri is now the president of M-Theory Audio, and the bands reunion as well as their history with Marco is one that has their storied past coming full circle with the release of Grievances. Three founding members are part of the band’s current lineup, (vocalist/guitarist) Rick McCoy, (guitarist) Erik Kikke, (drummer) Rick Yifrach and newest member joining in 1997 (guitarist) James Genenz. This is no reimagining of a once great band, this is the real deal, from the very beginning.
The band released their first death/doom soaked single Nemesis from the record earlier this year and is a reminder of the saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Nemesis is a modern sounding look back in time, a testament to the staying power of huge, distorted walls of guitar, with mournful melodies slowly drudging along and lows gutturals that reach deep into the pit of your stomach. This is timeless music that will never grow stale. Melancholic and darkly beautiful yet filled with sobering brutality and heaviness.
Rick Yifrach, “Nemesis is a song that reacts to the gross neglect and indifference towards that neglect of earth. We have polluted to no end, and we continue making a mess of things wherever we are. In the end, the earth has the last laugh, because she will survive humanity’s ravaging, while we will continue to bury our dead in the very mess we make, the rotten soil.”
Listening to the track as I read that, somehow strengthens the haunting nine minutes plus song as the prefect way for Avernus to have reintroduced themselves back into the fold of gloomy extreme music. It captures everything I love about this genre. A tidal wave of dreamlike emotions in the form of lumbering riffs, beastly growls and rhythmic drums smashing your bones into dust and then setting the fine granules free to roam through the airy atmosphere of mournful melodies and real heartache. Beauty truly meeting brutality.
For all the really wonderful things I have to say about Grievances, I have to criticise one large aspect. There’s entirely too much time spent on instrumentals. The album is at least an hour long and contains ten tracks, five of which are songs with vocals that equal about forty-two minutes of the runtime. In turn, five songs at eighteen or so minutes are spent trying to create varying degrees of instrumental atmosphere. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t. Honestly, if this album were shorter with maybe track seven Open Arms being the only instrumental, this would be a five-star album easily.
Criticism aside, the fully fleshed out songs on Grievances are superior works of masterful songwriting and emotion, and I am thankful that Avernus are back. Give this a spin.
(4 / 5)
