SULPHUR AEON — Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide (review)

SULPHUR AEON — Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide album cover Album · 2013 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide" is the debut full-length studio album by German death metal act Sulphur Aeon. The album was co-released through F.D.A. Rekotz and Imperium Productions in January 2013. Sulphur Aeon was formed in 2010 and released a demo on 2011 and the "Deep Deep Down They Sleep" EP in 2012.

Stylistically the material on the 11 track, 44:44 minutes long album is technically well played and atmopsheric death metal. It´s predominantly fast-paced, but the band occasionally slow things down a bit and play more heavy riffs and rhythms ("Monolithic" is an example of that). Sulphur Aeon produce a massive wall of sound, which provides their music with a majestic atmosphere, and the music is generally more focused on atmosphere than it is riff driven, which in some ways makes it more akin to black metal than to traditional death metal (there´s also a feeling of controlled chaos when the drums blast away under a wall of tremolo picked riffs, that is very similar to the way much black metal sounds). The vocals are death metal growling though and upon closer examination this is definitely a death metal release.

"Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide" features a professional and powerful sounding production and Sulphur Aeon are a very skilled act, performing their music with great conviction. So on most parameters "Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide" is a high quality death metal release. Personally I could have wished for more memorable riffs and less focus on atmosphere, because not many tracks stand out with catchy riffs/rhythms or memorable vocal phrases, which means that many of the tracks featured on the album are hard to tell apart. When the band occasionally slows things down or play a more melodic oriented part, that´s when they are most interesting.

Other than those moments the album tends to become a bit of a monotone listen. There are still enough quality elements here to warrant a 3.5 star (70%) rating, but given the fact that Sulphur Aeon are obviously an incredibly skilled band, it is slightly disappointing that their compositional skills aren´t quite up to par with their performances (at least when it comes to writing memorable tunes). This is a debut album though and I expect the memorability of their songwriting to improve on future releases.
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