ALBUM REVIEW: I – Aonarach
It can’t be overstated how incredible the black metal scene is here on British shores. Undoubtedly led by English heavyweights WINTERFYLLETH, the UK scene has produced a wealth of fantastic black metal – generally of the atmospheric variety – over the last decade or so. The latest outfit to join the mist-cloaked ranks of atmospheric UK black metallers is AONARACH, the newest project from RUADH‘s Tom Perrett. Not content to rest on his laurels after releasing one of the most enchanting albums of 2020 with The Rock of the Clyde, Perrett is not only rapidly approaching the end point for RUADH‘s third full length in as many years, but has only started a whole new project. Enter AONARACH. Taking a far harsher, more frostbitten route than Perrett has previously gone with RUADH, does debut album I offering up some worthwhile misery?
AONARACH cover a lot of ground with I with just four tracks clocking in at about 37 minutes of material. There’s no lengthy introduction tracks, or momentum breaking interludes here – every second counts. Opening the record, The River eases in with a gentle – though short lived – synth passage before blast beats and tremolos take over. Fast, ferocious, and frostbitten, The River is raw and blistering at every turn. A change of pace for Perrett, I sees him teaming up with Spanish vocalist Alex Vogel, who delivers a more tortured scream Perrett‘s barked growls, offering a whole new dimension to his composing. For all the atmosphere and brutality, though, there’s plenty of space across I – something evident from just The River. Passages of more riff-focussed guitar work take over in places, bringing things down to more of a mid-tempo stomp than a whirlwind. A solid start, but things just get better from here.
Ghosts and The Ritual make up the mid section of I. The former reinforces the bleak, atmosphere The River established, and then some. Galloping drums run under the melancholic tremolo riffing, while Vogel‘s tortured screams really drive home the miserable, haar-choked feeling I has thus far established. The pacing of Ghosts must be praised, brief, mid-tempo passages breaking up the frostbitten aural assault while the mid-section, dropping all aggression, is less a welcome moment of tranquillity as it is a haunting reminder of the grimness AONARACH have masterfully captured. The Ritual keeps the momentum and high quality rolling onward, following on very nicely from Ghosts‘ closing melodies with a thunderous aggression. The layered, ethereal soundscapes make way for a far more traditional black metal outing, dripping with vitriol. Special mention has to go for the stunning solo work towards the end of The Ritual – a real highlight of I, and an underused weapon in AONARACH‘s arsenal.
As the emotive tremolos of The Ritual fade into silence, Solitude eases its way in as the album closer. Pure sorrow dominates the soundscape of Solitude, the slower rhythms keeping things moving at a funeral dirge pace while the riff work remains well and truly planted on the melancholic edge of melodic black metal. The riffing makes way for an atmospheric section around the mid-way point that is truly stunning, equal parts beautiful and utterly soul-wrenching. Unrestrained aggressions makes its way back into play in the final minutes of Solitude in the most emotional of fashions, before a soft outro rounds AONARACH‘s debut off in the most bittersweet of fashions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a band born in the midst of COVID induced lockdowns with a name meaning isolation, I is an album drenched from start to finish in misery. An incredibly promising debut, AONARACH has delivered four stunning tracks of grim, atmospheric, raw black metal. Though the project was born as a response to the isolation of national lockdowns, Perrett‘s newest outfit is a welcome addition to Scotland’s black metal pantheon, and a project that deserves just as much attention as his more established RUADH.
Rating: 8/10
I is set out now via Northern Silence Productions/Red Glen Productions.
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