You know what I hate? People who make out at the cinema, that's what. 'Cause no matter how loud the movie is at any given moment, you can always just sort of distinguish the noise they make, and frankly it's pretty distracting. And is there any better way to show complete apathy towards another group of people's work? It would be understandable if the movie were some stupid time-waster, but there was almost an entire row of people making out when I went to see Inception. Then there are the irritating people on the other end of the spectrum. Those who gasp and go “Oh my god!” or “Did you see that?” when watching a movie. Not only are they irritating and inappropriately amusing, but they also seem to have never learned the unwritten rule that overenthusiasm about anything will make anyone look like a tool, or a mom. And the fact that overenthusiasm and apathy are both annoying means that I get slightly pissed whenever someone loses their shit over some completely unremarkable piece of music, and that the other person gets slightly pissed whenever I don't lose my shit over the completely incredible work of art they are unveiling. Well, I dare even the most Disturbed-iest metal noob to lose their shit over Aeons Past.
Element's debut takes quite a lot of time to grab one's attention because, well, there really isn't anything in it that would grab one's attention. It's not so bad as to be dismissed entirely, but it's also not so good as to warrant another listen. Sadly, once you forget about it, you'll never get to realize what a mistake you had made by not concentrating on it enough. Aeons Past is like that kid everyone thought was boring and then ended up being Isaac Newton. Once you reach beyond the uninteresting outer shell, you find someone brilliant, but who needs other people's help to put his clothes on. The songs are mostly comprised of boring tech death guitars, backed by boring tech death drumming and with rather bad vocals on top, and the only thing that seems to break the dullness is the occasional heavier part. A casual listen will also make it close to impossible to tell any of the songs apart, and the production sounds like Lego.
But if one is to listen to the album with some previous knowledge of the songs, it quickly becomes apparent how well constructed and unpredictable they really are. The songwriting here is some of the most convoluted I've heard yet, but you simply can't deny that it makes sense. The way the songs go in and out of riffs, going back and forth between themes in an eclectic yet logical fashion. It's like if every song were a Rube Goldberg machine on that rare occasion that the ball falls exactly in the right place, and the washing machine motor is turned on at the right moment for the paper boat to hit the button and everything works. And as a bonus, there is the occasional badass riff and the drumming sometimes has the power to astonish.
One thing that an album like this obviously couldn't go without were the samples and keyboards here and there for the listener to catch their breath, but they only left me thinking that they could have been so much better. It's a very considerate thing to add a breather here and there, but even breathers are not supposed to suck. I blame the production for this. The crunchy, plastic and sterile sound is tolerable, and may I even say, slightly enjoyable on the actual songs, but the interludes really ought to be more spacious, give a feel of the surroundings created by the album. What most suffered from this, though, was “Within Singularity”, which could have been a fantastic, fantastically simple little piece to serve as an epilogue to Aeons Past, but, as it is presented, I just wonder what the hell it's doing there. And, well, the vocals are just silly.
Also, I've talked about how the riffs are occasionally badass. That's mainly because I think I might be able to count on my fingers the times they were actually awesome. So make no mistake, there's no way you can look at this release in which it is not generic Technical Death Metal. It's generic Technical Death Metal with an interesting twist, but still generic. But, then again, we are talking about a band with a discography of only two full-lengths, and they already managed to use up the words “Element”, “Aeons” and “Energy” with only two album covers, so it's not like they were making people expect them to be very original in the first place. And you know what? They are good at what they do.
Standout tracks:
Kronor VII
Sentiment Dissolve
Dying Sund Descend
Aeons Past
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