UMUR "Cendres Et Sang" is the debut full-length studio album by Greek extreme metal act Aenaon. The album was released through code666 in June 2011.

The band play an experimental/avant garde form of black/death metal that I prefer to tag extreme metal. That´s means that the music on the album is not really black metal nor is it death metal. The truth lies somewhere in between. The music is pretty varied with both straight forward extreme metal sections (blast beats, mid-tempo groove and doomier sections), mellow jazzy avant gardish sections with saxophone and progressive epic sections. There is a good balance between melodic and more raw content. The clean and polished sound production ensures that the music never gets too raw though (It´s of course an aquired taste but I think the music could have prospered from a more filthy and raw production). The band are very well playing and everything is delivered with precision and generally sound very convincing.

"Cendres Et Sang" is overall a very professional product and it fully deserves a 3.5 star (70%) rating. "Cendres Et Sang" is recommended to those who enjoy their extreme metal with a twist.

J-Man After releasing a handful of minor releases since their formation in 2005, Greek avant-garde black metal act Aenaon released this debut full-length in June of 2011 on code666. Cenres et Sang is an album that's strikingly unique in sound, while still providing plenty of quality compositions and impressive musicianship. The band's unique mix of genres, topped off with a strange, avant-garde twist makes Cenres et Sang an excellent recommendation to those seeking music on the not-so-traditional side of black metal. Aenaon still has some work to do with creating songs that are mind-blowing in structure, as well as making a slightly more coherent album, but this is generally an exceptional debut full-length that I've had a pleasure experiencing.

Right off the bat, a few things stand out immediately unique about Aenaon's sound. Although they do occasionally lean in the noisy, chaotic avant-garde sounds of Blut Aus Nord or Deathspell Omega, Aenaon generally play a much more melodic style of avant-black metal, with plenty of influences from jazz, progressive rock, and ambient. Most of this album isn't very "avant-garde" in a compositional sense - many of the songs here are fairly conventional - but it is instead avant-garde when looking at the arrangements. The strange saxophone portions, occasional operatic vocals, and unconventional guitar effects really put Aenaon at odds with most of the straightforward black metal crowd. Cenres et Sang's unique ambitions are ultimately its strongest asset, and the band's willingness to experiment is quite encouraging.

The songwriting on Cenres et Sang is also generally pretty strong - tracks like "Suncord" and "Once" certainly leave an impression on the listener, and throwaways are nowhere to be found. A few songs may lack a bit in the department of memorability, yet they never come across as boring in any sense. The strong and unique musicianship tends to keep things interesting, even if a few compositions may be slightly lacking. The chaotic, yet still clear and audible production also helps flesh-out the emotional impact that Aenaon attempts to obtain - and, for the most part, they succeed tremendously.

Cenres et Sang isn't a flawless album, and Aenaon will still have to work on songwriting a little more before taking the avant-black metal world by storm, but this is still a very impressive debut outing from one of Greece's most promising young acts. If you're an extreme metal fan with an eclectic list of other musical interests, odds are that you'll enjoy Cenres et Sang quite a bit. I'd say 3.5 stars are warranted here. I'll be curious to see where Aenaon heads in the coming years.

adg211288 Cendres et Sang is the first full-length album from Greek avant-garde black metal band Aenaon, released in 2011. On Cendres et Sang Aenaon produces a sound which is a mix between some harsh black metal and some melodic ideas with plenty of avant-garde flavour to them, also heard well in that the release touches on a number of other music styles.

After opening with the intro track Kafkaesque, which is a saxophone piece, the album kicks off proper with Suncord (although it sounds like the two ought to be one track – seriously artists, stop doing this!), which quickly establishes just what Aenaon are all about. The black metal parts are intense and the avant-garde element in the music keeps it from being an exclusively brutal attack on the ears, which gives the music much more depth. Without it the album would just be the band thrashing their black metal riffs away which would have resulted in a brutal yet bland release. There’s a very prominent jazz influence in the music with the inclusion of the saxophone in some of the tracks being the most notable aspect of this. The growled vocals are generally strong and I like the fact that Aenaon have gone for a decent production on the record, as it helps give the music more power. A raw production in black metal is all well and good when the aim is to create a cold minimalist atmosphere and while they lack of that may make the ‘true’ black metal devotee want to steer clear of Cendres et Sang, the decent production here should make the record much more appealing to the wider crowd.

It’s those non-standard ideas that give Cendres et Sang it’s most interesting aspects however. Parts of this record make me think I’m listening to early Mastodon, such as in Grand Narcotic Harvest, while yet others have an almost folk melody to them, such as in Necroscope. It certainly makes for a surprising listen on the first spin, and after that it still remains fresh and interesting with its unexpected twists and turns, and makes for a very fulfilling listen.

Additionally there are some very prominent lead guitar parts in the album that manage to give the release some air guitar moments, which I wasn’t actually expecting from a black metal album despite the fact that the avant-garde element should have made me expect the unexpected.

Overall Aenaon’s Cendres et Sang is the sort of black metal album that I like to come across. The avant-garde side of the band makes this a bit different from most and makes it stand out from the crowd. In truth I think that this is only the beginning of a great career for Aenaon and while this is a great debut effort, I fully expect them to deliver some true masterpieces in the future. Recommended for fans of non-standard black metal, especially if you’re partial to a bit of the good ol’ saxophone (just don’t expect a saxophone dominated album!).

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 8.1/10)