Sulphur Aeon - Gateway To The Antisphere |
Published April 03 2015
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…To Drown This World |
| Genre | Death Metal |
M.
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 11 |
T.
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Guitar
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| Running time | 52 Min. |
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Guitar
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| Label | Imperium Productions |
T.
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Bass
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| Release |
April 03, 2015 |
D.
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Drums
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| Country | Germany |
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Keyboard
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| Producer | Simon Werner | ||
| Similar artists | Immolation, Morbid Angel | ||
Every now and then they come around, those bands that truly pushes the boundaries of established genres further. Sulphur Aeon's 2013 debut 'Swallowed by the Ocean's tide' rested on a solid foundation of brutal death metal ranging from mid-tempo to blasting speeds in the veins of Immolation and Suffocation with hints of ethereal Morbid Angel-riffs, but it was so much more than another tribute to the gods of old.
By conjuring a dense, suffocating atmosphere underneath the brutality Sulphur Aeon managed to invoke the feeling of being trapped in and carefully treading Cthulhu's lost deep ocean domains in fear of awaking the menace from its ancient sleep.
In short, the Germans brought the horrors of Lovecroft to life with their music, something attempted by many but achieved by few. Puteraeon came extremely close with their debut album only to fall into generic Stockholm death metal on its sequels. Compared to the Swedes, Sulphur Aeon's sophomore 'Gateway to the Antisphere' not only follows in its predecessor's path but takes it, and the death metal genre, a slight step further.
The core remains the same, varied brutal tremolo riff assaults on top of a flowing uneasy atmosphere stemming from subtle guitar lines impossible to resist, with M.'s guttural incantations walking the middle ground between the two. This time around though some slight shifts in tempo towards a more mid-tempo oriented creation and a subtle loss of brutality in favor of a more pronounced atmosphere, creates something even further astounding and horrifying without losing an inch of the songwriting skills displayed on 'Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide'.
Where the debut was choking the listener with the uncertainty of walking the ancient maritime streets of R'lyeh without any hope of escape, 'Gateway to the Antisphere' keeps the listener mercilessly afloat on the surface of a vast ocean with immense threats of being either pulled down into the deep or sucked up through the atmosphere to enter the realms of even greater horrors. On the debut the horror was focused, here it is uncertain and more abstract, much thanks to the focused production that lets the atmosphere breathe without losing the brutal intensity.
'Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide' created a small buzz in the underground. If there is justice, 'Gateway to the Antipshere' will create an earthquake. Sulphur Aeon has evolved their atmospheric brutal death metal into even denser atmospheric realms without any loss of musical quality and apart from being a generally awesome piece of death metal, 'Gateway to the Antisphere' shows that death metal can enter realms previously unexplored without losing too much of its core. Impressive!
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Performance
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Originality
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Production
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Vocals
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Songwriting
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8 |
9 |
7 |
7 |
8 |
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Summary
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8 chalices of 10 - Tengan |
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