adg211288 Aeons Black is the fourth full-length album to be released by Swedish death metal act Aeon. The album was released in 2012. Aeons Black is the first release from Aeon to feature drummer Arttu Malkki since the EP Dark Order (2001), although at the time of my writing this review he has since left the band again and been replaced with Emil Wiksten. The album also introduces Marcus Edvardsson to the band as the new bass player after bass duties were handled by guitarist Daniel Dlimi on Aeon’s previous album Path of Fire (2010).

The music on Aeons Black is very much straight up death metal. Aeon has a no frills attached approach and throughout the fifteen track album they relentlessly refuse to deviate from this form, although they do throw in a few brief interlude instrumental tracks at various times. It’s not excessively brutal but it does somehow manage to come across as a little monotonous at times. Take the opening track Still They Pray; while it does manage to pack a bit of a punch still it sounds somehow mechanical, rarely allowing me to appreciate the riffs, so the rare lead guitar lines that crop up in brief spurts are a welcome distraction. The Glowing Hate which is up second improves on Aeon’s sound a lot though, as the riffs are a bit more distinct. Fortunately the majority of the album contains tracks more to the standard of The Glowing Hate, but I can’t honestly say that Aeons Black particularly does it for me as a death metal release. At over fifty minutes long I’d have liked a few surprises within the track list as it often seems that the band took the same ideas for every single song here, and eventually the songs just seem to blur together and I have trouble recognising one from the other despite the relatively understandable growling.

While there is undoubtedly a market for death metal acts like Aeon and Aeons Black has ultimately been enjoyable enough for a casual listen they’ve failed to wholeheartedly convince me with this one. A shorter album would have worked in this style a bit better in my opinion as it’s worn out its welcome well before the end, but nevertheless, a good album rating is deserved since despite some faults that make it feel a bit soulless at times, it wasn’t a bad listen.

67/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org/aeon-aeons-black-t2773.html))