siLLy puPPy Named after the bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, AEQUORIA formed as far back as 2009 in Nevada City, California and hasn’t exactly been the most productive band in the biz with only two releases in its thirteen year run. While a demo emerged in 2010, it took another four years for the first album “Tellurian” to showcase the band’s hybridizing effects of merging atmospheric sludge metal with doom metal and post-rock. The stylistic approach may have been slightly innovative for the time but the band took a hiatus for the next eight years but finally after a long snooze has emerged with its second coming simply titled DIM.

While any album that features an album cover of a stag in the woods may bring Agalloch’s classic album “The Mantle” to mind, the fact is AEQUOREA actually does have its own sound although references to Neurosis, Isis and YOB are readily apparent. This band is a five-piece with the current lineup consisting of Falon Stoval (bass, vocals) Clay Powers (drums, vocals), Phillip Gallagher (guitars), James Brett (guitars, vocals) and Chris Johnson (keyboards, percussion). While Agalloch does have some similarities, AEQUOREA leaves out the black metal references and sticks to the world of sludge metal for its extreme proclivities while mining the world of post-rock for the musical processions and cleaner sounds on board.

DIM is a classic album’s worth of four tracks that is 34 minutes of playing time. While the compositions are clearly in post-metal territory and the vocals, drumming patterns and emotional outbursts reek of sludge, there are also many references to doom metal and thus AEQUOREA has done an excellent job of blending it all together until only a formidable expert can detect which genetic sequences were inherited from which parent genome. Add to that there are touches of grunge with the melodic similarities to Nirvana on the track “Mara of the Hollow Shadow.” The album plays out very nicely with nothing whizzing by overly fast and the transitions between stylistic approaches are tastily executed.


While post-metal can be a lazy sort of metal sub-genre that doesn’t allow musicians to crank out their best wizardry, AEQUOREA on the other hand allows crazy percussive creativity and riffing frenzies that would feel right at home in thrash or death metal at key moments. Despite the overarching theme of sludge metal dominating the soundscape, the tapestries of other metal forces in the mix are nicely performed and the atmospheric touches add icing to the already sweetened bounty of this beautiful dessert. I’m not sure which of the vocalists is the lead but he has a powerful and competent ability to control his guttural expulsions like few others have achieved. This adds subtle nuances that only enhance the atmospheric flow.

I’m quite intrigued by AEQUOREA and this second album DIM as it offers beautiful motifs of sludge driven post and doom metal that eke out all those possibilities between the cracks. Perhaps this band hasn’t quite reached its full potential as DIM seems to lack that extra “something” that puts it leagues ahead of the competition but for a relatively unknown band that has only two albums under its belt, i find the mix of sludgy din sprawled out into post-metal cyclical grooves with heaps of atmospheric splendor laced with just enough melodic mojo to keep from sounding too dissonant the perfect recipe. Perhaps not as inventive as Agalloch or Neurosis but these guys are certainly heading in the right direction.