Aeonian Sorrow – A Life Without
Album Review By Rainer Kerber
For some years now I’ve been a great fan of this genre – Melodic Death / Doom Metal or especially Funeral Doom. And that’s exactly what the multi-cultural band Aeonian Sorrow celebrates. The band was founded in 2015 by the Greek singer Gogo Melone. She gathered excellent musicians from Finland and Romania around her. After a first single (2017) the debut album “Into The Eternity A Moment We Are” was released in March 2018. With this album the band also went on an European tour. I had the pleasure of seeing Aeonian Sorrow live in Hamburg last year as an opener for Swallow The Sun. In early 2020 the EP “A Life Without” was released with four new songs, initially digital, later also as a physical CD.
There are four songs on this EP, with a total playing time of more than thirty minutes. With some other bands, regular albums are shorter. But Aeonian Sorrow play Funeral Doom as I said. And there the songs are not only slow, they are often excessively long. So there is a lot of time to let a song develop gradually. The opener is a good example of this. It starts with calm electric piano and other keyboard / synthesizer sounds. Later there is a calm and rhythmic drumming. The abysmally evil growls (Ville Rutanen) are subordinate to this contemplative mood. And on top of that they sound highly melodic. After three minutes the guitars begin. Another three minutes later, the beguiling vocals of singer Gogo Melone can be heard. In this way, a huge arc of tension is literally built up. The longest song “One Love” takes the listener into the doomed sound worlds for just over ten minutes. Not only the growls provide the metallic hardness, but above all the dark riffs of the lower tuned guitars. In the shortest album track “My Solitude” the tempo picks up a little. And the singer sings in slightly lower pitches. Here the rigid musical concept of Funeral Doom is pushed aside a bit, which of course ensures variety. But already with the final song “Hopeless Suicide” the music is slowed down again. Slow piano sounds accompanied by synthies flatter the ethereal vocals. The growls put pressure on the mind again.
Like I said, I love that sound. And Aeonian Sorrow perfect present it. Despite the calm in the song structures, the thirty-five minutes never get boring. I can only recommend this EP to any metal fan.
Aeonian Sorrow – The Endless Fall Of Grief: https://youtu.be/4Yembs-UbD8
Lineup:
Pyry Hanski – Bass
Taneli Jämsä – Guitars
Gogo Melone – Vocals (female), Keyboards
Daniel Neagoe – Drums
Jukka Jauhiainen Guitars
Ville Rutanen – Vocals (harsh)
Label: Self released
Out: January 27th, 2020 (digital) / February 7th, 2020 (CD)
Playing time: 35:44
Track list:
- The Endless Fall Of Grief
- One Love
- My Solitude
- Hopeless Suicide
Rating : 9/10
MHF Magazine/Rainer Kerber
