Super groups are no longer an unheard-of subject as they have been springing up here and there practically on a daily basis as of late. Finland’s own Black Sun Aeon was formed last year and consists of Tuomas Saukkonen of Melodic Death Gothic outfit Before The Dawn, responsible for all guitars, drums, keyboards and dark vocals, and also clean singer Mikko Heikkilä courtesy of Gothic metallers Sinamore. Outside the studio, the duet is also backed up by a number of session musicians from other Finnish bands. While, in theory, you could think that the guys would offer you a somewhat mixed copy of what is played by their native outfits, in practice, you get high caliber Death Doom Metal, candied just a bit with evanescent yet highly profound gothic tunes and motifs and heavily loaded with quite energetic additions of monstrous crushing leads and even some Black Metal trademarks.

Like most other Doom Metal albums, Darkness Walks Beside Me calls for certain suitably fitting conditions during the listening process. Consequently, I don’t suggest you try to grasp its sonic deepness while frying fish in the kitchen or hoovering the house. Instead, nestle yourself on a couch, turn off the lights and close your eyes. The absence of anyone else or any other distractions in the room is welcome too. Only in this way will you be able to feel this album’s ample gamut keenly, immersing yourself completely in the all-pervading gloom offered by this disc. In contrast to other Finnish bands, Black Sun Aeon doesn’t cause me to draw any easy parallels to the country’s Death Doom scene, and, except for some vague similarities to Swallow The Sun and Moonsorrow, there are far more moments that call up Sweden’s Catatonia or Britain’s Paradise Lost.

Concept-wise, Darkness Walks Beside Me is broken down into 9 chapters, with each of them being a “real” song and telling the listener its own story of various human emotions and circumstances, and skillfully bringing them to life. The music is a perfect accompaniment and conveys its themes in a orderly, well-finished manner. Thus, “A Song For My Wrath” is equipped with raging heavy leads and wicked snarls occasionally interrupted by mellower acoustic breaks and highly melodic clean singing from Mikko. “A Song For My Demise”, starting with extremely beautiful and hypnotizing half-acoustic prelude, is, nevertheless, the most invigorative piece on this album and holds on to a bit faster pace than the rest of the songs. The leads are massive, crushing and pushing, which nearly puts this track into the Melodic Death category. Actually, most of the songs stick to one template and, along with lots of sorrowful, doomy parts, present some pace accelerations and pretty energetic sections, which helps this album avoid the monotony which is so common for the genre as a whole. “A Song For This Winter” is probably my current favourite track, as I just can’t help admiring its cold, oppressive anguish, well-crafted, low-tuned plucked guitars, tom-tom-like drumming and mighty lead onslaughts, creating an extravagant feel to its otherwise dark mood.

Despite the fact that this debut won’t likely shatter anyone’s views on contemporary Doom Metal, I hope it will grab your attention for more than one or two surface spins, as everything here obeys the laws of quality and perfection. Perfect sound, perfect selection of songs and perfect tempo variations for an album in a genre that doesn’t usually surprise with much variety. I’m sure that you won’t regret investing your time and money in Darkness Walks Beside Me, since it’s going to become a perfect choice on days when you are in a mood for some haunting and gloomy music.

[Visit the band's website]

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