adg211288
Extance (2014) is the second full-length album by Greek black metal act Aenaon. Although it's been a few years now since the release of Cendres et Sang (2011) Aenoan have kept busy and released the spilt Er / Alter Ego (2013) with Stielas Storhett as well as the compilation Spheres of Orion (2013), a collection that consisted of the earlier EP Phenomenon (2009), a couple of new tracks, and some rehearsal cuts. Extance features many guest performances with the likes of Mirai Kawashima (Sigh), Sindre Nedland (In Vain), Haris (Hail Spirit Noir) and Tanya Leontiou (Universe217) among those featured.
For a band promoted as avant-garde black metal, the debut album Cendres et Sang featured a more simplistic black/death metal sound with only the odd nod to both avant-garde and progressive influences. At least it seems simplistic in hindsight given how much better Aenaon have achieved the sound originally described on Extance. Although I still think there are nods to death metal to be found here, the extreme metal elements are certainly much more focused on black metal, albeit a pretty well polished kind of black metal that is more easily recognised by the growling style used and the avant-garde elements have been brought to the fore, often through the band's unusual application of melody lines.
Aside from the typical black metal instrumentation of guitars, bass and drums, Aenaon have opted to also include instruments such as saxophone, cello, harmonica, contrabass, and oud along with piano, synths and various electronic effects. The saxophone is certainly the extra instrument of choice though, and it's a returning element that was also featured on Cendres et Sang. The music has a habit of throwing out the metal elements at odd intervals to introduce something seemingly random, ranging from more common ideas such as melodic clean tone guitar leads that have a bit of an Opeth vibe them, to the more unusual such as during Der Mude Tod where the sound comes over as Arabic influenced to my ears, possibly that's the oud, but it also has the saxophone going over the top. Then there's also Funeral Blues where the female vocals by guest performer Tanya Leontiou certainly have a weird tone to them.
I enjoyed the Aenaon debut Cendres et Sang a fair bit when it was released but did feel that they had some way to go yet and didn't actually feel a desire to revisit that album until the release of Extance. While on Extance the band has certainly taken that next crucial step forwards to becoming a top quality act, this time properly achieving the avant-garde black metal sound that was originally described, I can't help but feel that Extance is only a slight improvement on its predecessor, oddly for that very reason. It's a very solid album that certainly brings ideas aplenty while never sounding chaotic but I have say that there's a couple of elements that Cendres et Sang has the upper hand on, notably I miss the debut's stronger death metal aspect and I think it would have worked well for Aenaon again here to chop and change the way they handle their metallic element. A high end 4 star range rating is still in order though.
83/100
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/aenaon-extance-t3350.html)