Aeon - "Rise to Dominate"

Aeon - When the War Comes (Metal Blade 2007)

Aeon - Rise to Dominate /Metal Blade

One of the most important bands to death metal is Deicide. It's just true. Albums like Deicide, Legion, and Once Upon the Cross (not to mention 2006's The Stench of Redemption) are landmarks in the death-metal pantheon, crucial albums chock full of riffs, hooks, and that over-the-top Satanic lyricism and imagery. As we all know, history always repeats itself, although if Back to the Future has taught us anything, slight changes are sometimes made.

Aeon's 2005 album Bleeding the False was Satanic death metal in all of its evil, evil glory. Tracks like (the now infamous) "God Gives Head in Heaven" and "Morbid Desire to Burn" cut through fans and left them maimed on the floor shouting, "brutal!!!" The obvious heir to Deicide's musical throne, the one thing that set the band apart was the ability to walk that ever-present line in metal of taking one's self too seriously. Fans who listened to the album the whole way through were treated to a bluegrass version of "God Gives Head in Heaven" at the disc's end. Classic.

After such an unexpected and devastating showing, fans have been chomping at the bit since the day after Bleeding was released, waiting for the Aeon's next slab of god-hating tunes. September 2007 finally sees the release of Rise to Dominate, an excellent follow-up.

Though it's hard to establish a signature sound in a genre like death metal, it's apparent from the first track, "Helel Ben_Shaghar" (whatever that means) that this is an Aeon album. And, of course, the first word on the record is "Lucifer." The tracks march on after that with little concern for Jesus or any of his cronies. "Caressed By the Holy Man," "Godless," "You Pray to Nothing" and so on. This type of subject matter may be difficult for some people to look past, but you have to remember that this is death metal. If you want to hear incredibly brutal songs, you're going to have to live with lyrics about the devil, hell, hating Christians, and other, non-church friendly topics. Different from Bleeding the False, though, is the overly-blatant approach to Aeon's lyrics. Sure, "Spreading Their Disease" ("They use their mouths as a weapon / they shoot us with lies . . . I have my own god / so fuck you Jehovah go away") may not be the most concise attack on unwanted Christian recruitment, but "Doorkocker" from Bleeding the False takes a slightly more direct approach: "Oh please doorknocker knock on my door / so I can split your Bible in two as before." I guess it's more of a lateral move than anything.

Again, while Aeon's lyrics may be tongue-in-cheek or goofy or whatever, it's really the sound of Tommy Dahlström's voice over the blastbeats and inexorable riffs that's more important than what he's actually saying. Knowing that it's not racist or misogynistic makes it easier to see the vocals as just another component of Aeon's sound. The guitars on Rise to Dominate sound great: chunky and clear, you can hear each riffs as it breaks you down with permission granted upon pressing "play." The drums are a little too processed-sounding for my liking, the exactness of everything a little sterile, but hearing those bass drums chug away in time with the speed picking is a thing of beauty (see the closing riff of "House of Greed"). Like many metal albums before it, the bass is somewhere in there, but not really that important to Aeon's sound.

Like Deicide, there's an undercurrent of technicality in Aeon's sound that’s not always evident when casually listening. Riffs have accents in weird places and the drum patterns follow the guitars incredibly well, but still manage to keep everything grounded with a heavy, plodding feel. Nothing too flashy, but you can count on those drums being there for you when you need them, enough energy left over to throw in a crazy fill here and there for good measure. This is where Aeon really works: they keep your interest without being dicks about it and trying so hard to show off that it comes across as phony. This is the kind of technicality that is reproducible in a live setting, something that really flashy technical death-metal bands aren't always capable of. Take a listen to "When the War Comes" up there and you'll see what I mean. The amount of subtle changes in that song alone is enough to explode at least four Coldplay's.

Nerd talk aside, Rise to Dominate is as good a slab of death fucking metal that you're going to hear all year (and maybe next year) unless Aeon decide to put out another album really quickly, so get this and crank it in traffic.

If I still have your attention, I'd like to publicly (on the internet) state how bummed I am that Aeon dropped off the North-American Cannibal Corpse tour. I will use one of your own lyrics against you, Aeon.

"They do a lot of things that makes [sic] no sense."