Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 12:07 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: Doom Metal, 70’s prog
Country: International
Label: The Church Within Records
Year: 2014
If your album is not a cult masterpiece, if it’s not called “Dopesmoker”, if there isn’t a legend about it based on the fact that you blew your advance on weed or if your band’s name simply isn’t Sleep, then the release of an album that has only one song and lasts for nearly one hour is (to say the least) a brave decision.
Jondix is the mastermind behind this release and he’s in charge of composing, writing the lyrics and doing the artwork. Some may know him due to his involvement in bands like Eight Hands for Kali and Great Coven. So is his self-confidence justified? Let’s take things from the start. He has a very good reason for his morale to be boosted since he has gathered three significant artists for the making of “Pentalpha”. Each one of them has a rich background.
On the vocals, Mr. Mats Levén. Among other things, he has worked with Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Candlemass, Therion and Firewind, but most importantly (and I’m not especially objective when I say this) he is the voice that is heard on Krux’s phenomenal first album. On the drums, Mr. Marco Minneman. He’s Steven Wilson’s drummer and in the past he has worked with Kreator and Joe Satriani. Last but not least, Joseph Diaz. He’s in charge of the bass and keyboards and apart from playing with Jordix for Eight Hands for Kali he is also the guitar player for Jon Oliva’s Pain. There’s also Tas Danazoglou who does some guest vocals.
Now that’s a hell of a team, don’t you agree? And they are a difficult bunch to work with since everybody comes from a different country. But Jondix went to the trouble of recording this album in several different locations (L.A., Barcelona, Stockholm). So let’s see what kind of music he wrote. I would just like to remind you that this is a one-song album and it’s not divided into separate parts/tracks.
“Pentalpha” starts off with an eight minute long intro. 70’s sounding synhts lead to some violins, rain, poetry, then some acoustic guitars and then (finally) Levén’s vocals kick in. It’s definitely not “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” but it is ok. At the sound of the first riff everything just gets a lot better and Aeonsgate come off as a band which knows its game very well when it comes to playing doom… Unfortunately, there’s a good chance that you won’t pay so much attention to what is going on after ten minutes or so (given that you are still listening to the album). Despite the fact that Jondix has written some pretty good riffs, Marco Minneman’s performance is just amazing and Joseph Diaz has played two face-melting solos (one on the keyboards and one on the guitar), I don’t think that someone will listen to the whole album just for those three or four outstanding moments. The structure of the song is not helping at all, since all the good ideas get very repetitive after a certain point, thus becoming tedious. Doom is repetitive by its nature so that probably means that the ideas are not that good after all.
It’s a pity.
P.S.: Happy new year everybody
3/6
