Aonian Invocation

Aonian Invocation is the debut album by the one-man project Agos, and features some pretty decent to good blackened death metal- depending on the song.

The music here is undoubtedly rooted in modern blackened death metal/deathened black metal/whatever Rotting Christ has been doing for the last few years, and the mastermind behind this album does it fairly well. The riffs are heavy and menacing, there are cool passages between the songs, and there's an occasional female vocal passage (that remind me of Indian classical vocal music, for some reason), but there aren't many tricks nor metaphorical rabbits jumping out of musical hats. It's a straightforward release, for the best and the worst. The levels of sonic energy are intense, and the atmosphere is menacing and evil- but the structures of the songs are very easy to guess once you hear the first few songs, and this predictability makes the album a tedious listen once you hit the 20 minute mark. There are a few drum patters that are the basis of many of the songs and of many of their parts- a fact that makes a large portion of the album seem like one tediously long song. If it were to be trimmed by 15 minutes, the monotonicity of it would've definitely been less evident and would even have contributing values.

There are some definite highlights here- such as "Trojan Desolation" and the last two tracks- which encapsulate the sound this album has achieved in the best and most flattering way- the intros are really fitting, and using the recurring female vocal intro as a motif in "Trojan Desolation" was a fairly good idea, as it adds to the mysteriousness and ominousness of the atmosphere. The Thou Art Lord/Varathorn/On Thorns I Lay influences shine the brightest in these tracks as well, with the "Greek BM"ness being very evident in these songs' structures and melodies.

Production-wise, this album is VERY thick, modern, and might even seem too dense and upfront for some. The vocals are a bit far in the mix, which is unfortunate since they are done very well throughout the album albeit being monotonous themselves. Overall, this is a fairly enjoyable slab of monolithic death/black/whatever, but doesn't have as much replay value unfortunately.