Aeonian Sorrow - A Life Without (2020)

Perfectly fitting for a dark and gloomy day, today we have Aeonian Sorrow’s latest EP: “A Life Without”. As the title indicates, this release is full of melancholy and gloom, delivering exactly what the fans of the band and the genre expects. For over 30 minutes the band explores cavernous atmospheres filled with crushing riffs, demoralizing growls and angelic female vocals.

The album slowly builds up with the opener “The Endless Fall of Grief”. Instead of the traditional long instrumental intro, this track quickly unravels brutal growls and heavy guitars, creating a very imposing and commanding mood since the first few minutes. Ville Rutanen (Red Moon Architect) handles all growls, perfectly contrasting them from Gogo Melone’s sultry female vocals, a brilliant example of this is the emotional “One Love” and its dramatic guitar leads and ‘beauty and the beast’ vocal interchanges.

With a new line-up since 2019, the band’s sound has nicely consolidated and tracks like “My Solitude” showcase the perfect balance between atmospheric keyboards, enchanting vocal melodies and ravaging Doomy guitar riffs. Our favorite track has to be the misery inducing “Hopeless Suicide” and its weeping guitars. The drumming crafts a very depressive tempo, while the solemn vocal arrangements take this song to a whole new level of despair.

If you are looking for another brilliant Atmospheric Death/Doom Metal release for your collection, make sure to pick up a copy of “A Life Without”. In a similar fashion than bands like Clouds, Shape of Despair, Officium Triste, etc. Aeonian Sorrow delivers non-stop melancholy, perfectly wrapped around crushing riffs and powerful vocal arrangements.

Label: Self-Released

Release: January 27th, 2020

Genre: Atmospheric/Funeral Death/Doom Metal

Country: International