I think the biggest problem I have with this album from Greek black metal band Awe is that it kind of sounds exactly as I thought it might. Wrapped in some very nice artwork and split into three passages or ‘Actus’, being ‘Primus’, ‘Secundus’ and ‘Purus’ which cover fifty odd minutes, the good news is that this is intelligent music plainly well put together with thought and talent. If you took the sane aspects of mid period Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord, smoothed them out and retained that kind of bleak, relentless, modern, spiralling down into darkness sound you would be close. Which is pretty much what I guessed from the cover: Not a bad thing, just an observation.
There is a dense, obscure structure to these lengthy acts, a shifting and spinning sense of tempo accentuated by the progressive and oft-times discordant notes. The vocals are sufficiently echoing and controlled, if a little one dimensional and the drums solid enough to keep it on track. Chord and note progressions scamper and claw their way up and down harsh screes of riffing or push slowly and carefully through still, dark waters and into slow, heavy stepped passages. A philosophical if harsh facet pervades the music (though I have no lyrics to hand) and this is all worthy. If tracks between fifteen and twenty minutes of this appeal then stop right here and go and buy, or at least listen. It will be worth your time.
Where I sadly part company is that try as I might this album fails to transport me, somehow. It never gets under my skin or pulls at my mind. It appeals to the intellect as good, well played progressive music does, it makes me nod in appreciation at the skill required to compose and perform but my spirit remains unmoved. It fails to tease me into a journey or an exploration. It moves easily through tempo changes and passages and yet when the final note is fading I am still where I was, disconnected from a hard intellectual exercise that offered me no way in emotionally.
Yes, this is a shame and will not be the case for other listeners but Awe will go on and I will remain apart. Fans of lengthy progressive modern black metal should give them a chance, but I just couldn’t travel with it. Sorry.
(6/10 Gizmo)
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