German Metal band Aiwaz (not to be confused with the Italian Death Metal band from years ago…who knew there would be two Aiwaz’s?) are quite a unique entity in their way. They are the living, breathing epitome of melancholy, which is of course nothing unique, but here it’s delivered with melody, passion, gloom and…well, as a useful example, the record company draw comparisons to Queensryche, Solitude Aeturnus, Marillion, Ghost and My Dying Bride. We’re clearly dealing with quite a wide Metal spectrum here!
If a genre label must be attached, the band are probably closest to Gothic Doom Metal, but that tag makes all sorts of comparisons leap to mind…which as a whole, Aiwaz aren’t. The music is slow and powerful, at times morose, but equally melodically uplifting. The band is basically a duo of Timo Maischatz, who handles all the instrumentation, which gives the perfect foundation for the striking, melodic, clean (with occasional harsh) vocals of Arkadius Kurek to click the band over into something rather different. The songs twist under a veil of dark, heavy music, and have been intelligently crafted around not only the musical ability of Maischatz, but very importantly around the silky smooth, varied vocals of Kurek, who manages to drag an unexpected heartfelt vocal melody from the gloomiest of musical refrains.
So where do those five aforementioned record company highlighted bands crop up? Well, My Dying Bride are a given as the grey, rain-soaked, wind-lashed landscape of West Yorkshire (I’m from Yorkshire, I’m allowed to say it!) is all over the guitar, bass and drums. And Aiwaz blend slow doom with excellent clean vocals, so there’s the Solitude Aeturnus likeness. The progressive edge the band have at times may bring to mind latter day Marillion for some and there’s maybe a hint of 90’s era Queensryche on occasion…but I’m not sure where Ghost crop up. I think maybe the latter three are thrown in as a bit of an attention grabbing curve-ball, especially the last one.
But it saved me trying to elaborate at length on my own comparisons – as I also hear a bit of Green Carnation, Winds, Anathema and Katatonia, but those comparisons are probably a bit too narrow for Aiwaz and don’t give enough of an insight into the varied nature buried within this fine album. Yes it’s melancholic throughout, and whilst it has a foot in the Doom Metal camp, another foot in Gothic Metal and an elbow in the progressive, it has much more to offer outside this. All six songs are over 7 minutes in length, and really need to be to allow them to develop and grow and encapsulate their full, epic potential. For what is on the surface an initially dark and gloomy offering, this is an album that manages to soar easily on musical and vocal melodies that hook you in and demand further investigations.
(8/10 Andy Barker)
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