Review Summary: A life without sorrow…
When doom metal magnates Eye Of Solitude announced they would no longer be releasing music during last year those that followed doom metal (particularly those of the funeral doom niche) were left pining at the void of the genre. But for years now, members of Eye Of Solitude have been lending their respective talents to other projects across the scene and in turn, keep the very essence of funeral death/doom metal alive. But for Aeonian Sorrow the list of its contributors runs deeper still. For the group’s 2020 EP, the band’s founder Gogo Melone (singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and lyricist) enlisted harsh vocalist Ville Rutanen (Red Moon Architect), guitarist Jukka Jauhiainen (Red Moon Architect, Crimson Sun) and drummer Daniel Neagoe (Shape of Despair, Clouds, Eye of Solitude), in addition to the already serving guitarist Taneli Jämsä (Ghost Voyage, Hukutus) and bassist Pyry Hanski (Mörbid Vomit, Before the Dawn etc.) making Aeonian Sorrow this year’s who’s who of doom metal. With that in mind it's only logical that fans would turn to the likes of Aeonian Sorrow and the group's 2020 EP given the sheer talent (and multiple name drops) on offer.
Considering the fact that this little EP runs over thirty minutes, a casual listener could be forgiven in thinking that this four-tracked effort borders on a full-length. This feeling is somewhat increased when you take into consideration the two larger tones that define
A Life Without’s larger sonic landscape. This dynamic bends musical criticism in two clear directions. Clearly, Aeonian Sorrow’s 2020 effort is built from a foundation of emotion, but it’s the too predictable fall from light and clean to the realms of devastating deathly growls. This is clearly shown in the EP’s introductory track, “The Endless Fall of Grief” which brings brooding minimalism into a world of world-wrenching, demonic growls. The build is deliberate, pacing before falling into heavy meets melodic cleans of Gogo Melone’s near uplifting melodies. It’s this despair and attrition that is balanced with hopeful, clean purity that dominates the rest of
A Life Without’s run-time. If there’s one thing Aeonian Sorrow has in spades, it's the atmosphere.
Even as
A Life Without continues it becomes pretty clear that Aeonian Sorrow stick to their strengths; brooding atmosphere full of loss and garnished with hope, devastating heavy tones and lighter ethereal cleans. But with tracks dancing around a ten minute run time (to which three of the EP’s four tracks qualify) some of the group’s compositions accidently meld into one another. Individually, they’re all different; and play to different emotive levels of the same firmament but as the listener finds themselves facing, “Hopeless Suicide” the gentle layers of sonic mourning and romping death growls bleed into some very similar aesthetics.
As a sampling of what Aeonian Sorrow has to offer the modern doom listener,
A Life Without doesn’t leave too many surprises. Despite the two-tone polarity of the group’s music,
A Life Without is a complimenting follow-up to the 2018
Into The Eternity A Moment We Are and easier to digest due to some clear run-time differences. It still has the cheese and momentum of a well tuned supergroup, but the slow moan of depressive context shines past most criticisms.
