The Bad Penny (beta)

Artist: Aeternam
Album: Disciples of the Unseen
Label: Metal Blade
Release date: February 16

As a new decade dawns, one might be inclined to wonder: Does the world really need another death-metal band? Thanks to Aeternam, the answer is a definitive yes: With their debut album, these Canadian heathens prove so immediately indispensable, you’d swear they’ve been around for years. Fully apparent on Disciples of the Unseen are Aeternam’s unquenchable dynamics and mastery of melody – even though it only contains eight full-fledged metal cuts (minus “Ars Almadel,” the intro; and “Iteru,” an interlude of sorts). With a glass raised to Nile, Aeternam dust off an Egyptian snake-charmer or two over the course of the record, but by the end of it, you might be as apt to think you’d just heard a new one from Moonspell. Achraf Loudiy’s gutteral growls are a dead ringer for Langsuyar’s, and the sweeping guitars featured on songs like “The Coronation of Seth” and “Goddess of Masr” are pretty close too. The difference? Efficiency. Chalk it up to Aeternam’s youth, maybe, but this rookie release has the laser-like accuracy of a band three times as old. And when a 44-minute metal album feels closer to 20, it could even contend for masterpiece status.

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This entry was posted on 01/12/2010 at 11:01 am and is filed under Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Aeternam, Moonspell, Nile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.