http://www.metalreviews.com/reviews/detail.php3?id=7154
Calling your albums first track
Kafkaesque seems like a transparent bid for cleverness-status to me, but then this is a code666 release, home of the weird and (sometimes) wonderful likes of
Axis of Perdition,
Ephel Duath, and current up-and-comers
Oddball Jazz-Metal Fusion Band. Sure enough, the opener in question is a short freeform saxophone solo which, without wanting to start on a downer, theres something slightly off about. Jazz instruments arent that much of an oddity in the more experimental realms of the metal world now, partly because of the ground-breaking work of certain other bands on the labels roster, and as a result the somewhat lost-sounding toots here dont quite intrigue as they might have done in a pre-
Ihsahn/
Shining world.This segues in the tangled thicket of ideas that is
Suncord, the first proper track here, and a perplexing amalgamation all sorts of influences. The main body of the sound is a mid-tempo blackened death stride, like a slightly more prosaic version of compatriots
Rotting Christ, but in the sudden jolts into quieter, erratic jangling it feels like
Ephel Duaths
The Painters Palette; occasional shouted vocals are reminiscent of
Virus; and the twisting approach to songwriting suggests
Ihsahn. Its a bit of a jumble, in which its hard to detect a coherent train of thought. Its one of those everything but the kitchen sink kind of songs.
So its probably to the albums benefit that
Aenaon settle into a more secure niche with
Psychonautic Od
and largely remain there for the rest of
Cendres et Sang. It opens with a big, stomping groove suggesting a debt to more recent
Satyricon and generally oscillates between that and periodic flashes of a more snarling blast approach. Thats a combination that has much in common with labelmates (and my all-time favourite band)
Ecnephias, and whilst
Aenaon eschews all the synth theatrics theres further parallels in both acts orientation towards a more accessible sense of gothic melody. The walking-pace metal of
Carnivoras Lair or
Necroscope have a definite
Paradise Lost feel to them. Flourishes of oddness, such as the Hammond organ on
Psychonautic Od
or the strange spacey sounds seemingly nicked from
Angst Skvadron on
Grand Narcotic Harvest are augmentations and ornaments rather than an ends in themselves.
The best track here though, is closer
In Heaven, a supremely warped arrangement of the song the girl in the radiator sings in David Lynchs
Eraserhead. Its one example of the band doing weird extremely well. This chillingly serene original becomes a cathartic metallic climax, which makes what has gone before seem slightly mediocre in comparison. The overall impression, then, is of a slightly puzzling record, at times striving too self-consciously for
avant-garde-ness and at other points feeling a bit too straightforward. It will be of interest to those of you that follow code666 releases avidly.
Killing Songs :
Psychonautic Od...,
Necroscope,
In Heaven
72/100