Aeviterne – The Ailing Facade
Release Date: 18th March 2022
Label: Profound Lore Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Blackened Death, Experimental Death Metal.
FFO: Gorguts, Flourishing, Sermon of Flames, Sunless, Teeth, Gaerea.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Ultimately delayed by the horrors of the global pandemic, New York experimental/atmospheric Death metal band Aeviterne seeks to release their first full-length album, The Ailing Facade on March 18th, 2022, following up their 2018 EP Sireless. At only 8 tracks, but at a full LP-length, the listener ought to know that they are about to embark on a sonic road trip packed-full of wandering songs, dynamic interludes, and recurrent themes, something about which Aeviterne does not disappoint.
The sound and feel of the music is morbidly-edgy and full of melancholy. The band describes the tone and feel of the album as being misanthropic, full of grief/dread, and ultimately hopeless. This is something that clearly comes across in the overall atmosphere. You wouldn’t need to rely on the lyrical content, as the constituent elements reinforce the brooding, overcast feeling of negative energy, something that this style of metal is 100% about.
Sonically, blackened suspended chords haunt every track lending to the very dissonant, chugging guitars and thumping bass. Vocals are throaty and rhythmic with a forward chesty raspiness. Bass guitar is not wildly-overdriven and comes across clean, but fills the gaps where the guitars are dotting the i’s with expressive melodies and accents. Noisey and droning, the hollow-sounding, reverb-laden guitar section restrains itself more than the traditional death metal musical section, focusing the tonal energy towards the overall tone and theater.
Drums are where the album really shines, the pace blistering throughout the majority of The Ailing Facade, something that gives the LP a total pace that mismatches the guitars’ post-blackened chiming, pulsing rhythm. If anything, it is safe to say that the drums lead the entire experience, speedily ripping through the 16th and 32nd notes through entire tracks, even the low-energy interludes, keeping the pace constantly metric and fast, as evidenced in Stilled the Hollow’s Sway and The Reeking Suns. The rhythm section is really where The Ailing Facade finds its “voice”.
Each of the tracks are around 5:00 or over, something that ought to convey that each song is not just a standard “verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus” type of album. Aeviterne certainly doesn’t phone-in the melancholy, choosing instead to allow the ebbs and flows to all 8 tracks drag the listener around, emotionally and musically, something that more bands ought to consider taking ownership of. The elemental themes, track flow, and overall feel are highly-comparable to Gaerea’s masterful 2020 offering, Limbo, something which is not a comparison to make lightly.
The mix and mastering is good, bringing the drums further towards the front of the mix, something that comes across well as the drums have such an effect on the rhythmic flow of the songs. If anything, the blistering speed of the drums is what keeps this from becoming more of a post-black offering, so the choice to feature the drum mix where it is will be regarded as the right decision over time. The guitars and vocals sit a little further back in the mix, but manage to fill the noise void well, as the long reverb meshes the tones between the guitars and bass together. Some tracks feature clean guitar and musical interludes, such as The Ailing Facade, which is chock-full of the post-black atmosphere, immersing the listener in ebbs and flows, dynamically.
The album concludes its epic sonic journey with Dream In Lies, at nine and a half minutes. Aeviterne makes no mistake that the listener is not going to be able to just skip back and forth between singles. This album is definitely meant to be enjoyed in movements or 4 tracks (at least) at a time. Frankly, the track selection is excellent, as the first 4 tracks have a dynamic that works separate from the last four. If you only have 20 minutes or so to listen, you could easily enjoy either movement without reaching for the skip button once.
(3.5 / 5)
