Disciples of the Unseen is the debut release by Canadian epic death metal band Aeternam. The band signed with Metal Blade last year and this new release is coming out next Tuesday, Feb. 16th.

Aeternam's new release stands out from a number of the bands in the death metal genre as they effortlessly combine brutal riffs and growling vocals with Middle Eastern and tribal rhythms and sweeping guitar solos. Nile is a close point of comparison but Aeternam's music is more diverse and more melodic.

The disc starts with an almost Gregorian instrumental ("Ars Almadel") which then leads into the pounding blast beats of "Angel Horned" (live video below). On songs like "Goddess of Masr", the band combines the aggressive with the sublime. This song starts with some epic guitar solos before heading into a breakdown and then coming out of this mid-way through the song for some melodic and restrained guitar work, finally ending the song with some church-like chanting. Other songs include the acoustic "Interu" which features clean vocal harmonies from the band combined with intricate Middle Eastern bass and drum rhythms. Vocalist Achraf Loudiy also uses clean vocals on "The Coronation of Seth" and this track could easily find its way into heavy rotation on metal radio stations. While Aeternam is based in Quebec, the overall tone of this disc is closer to some of the metal that has been coming out of Europe as of late rather than some of Aeternam's North American contemporaries.

Disciples of the Unseen was produced by mastermind JeF Fortin (Neuraxis, The Last Felony) and he brings out the subtle complexities of the music which makes for great headphone listening. It sounds like every note on this disc was chosen with care and the band never stoops to raw brutality just for the sake of it. This a great debut and the diversity of the disc should attract fans from across a variety of metal sub-genres.

Aeternam is planning on spending most of the next year out on the road so I'm looking forward to catching the band live whenever they get to NYC.



Links:
Aeternam