So many bands today are incredibly hard to distinguish from one another. The riffs blend together, the vocal style is the same, and there is a huge lack of originality with the overall musicianship. It is also incredibly difficult to stand out in the deathcore genre. Evansville, Indiana natives, Aegaeon, hit the bullseye in finding a way to stand out from all the other deathcore bands on the scene today. Without any label or management support, Aegaeon have been extensively touring, writing, and putting out productions since their inception in 2008. Having released a previous EP and full length album, their newest production, ‘Being’, proves to be among one of the heaviest releases of 2012 so far.
‘Being’ starts off with the introduction track, cleverly titled “Introduction”. I think that most intro tracks are boring and pointless. This was my thought after the first listen through, but I changed my mind after hearing it a few more times. The spacey and intergalactic vibes resonate in your mind just before the first tune, “Demise”. The spacey element is found within the whole EP as well. The ambience is present before, during, and after the tunes.
The pummeling force of drums, heavy riffs, and monstrous vocals make ‘Being’ such a treat to listen to. From start to finish, it is constant in your face brutality. The musicianship of the band is incredibly high, as they are able to effectively capture their signature style of deathcore and mold it into a superior aural representation for the listener. A defining aspect to Aegaeon’s sound are the vocals of Jim Martin. They are not the typical guttural lows and shrieking highs. Martin’s vocals would be the product if Pathology’s Jonathon Huber and Beneath the Massacre’s Elliot Desgagnes guttural lows somehow fused together. Martin’s vocals fit like a glove over the rest of the music. The drums switch off between accompanying the chugging guitars to blast beats and breakdowns. Guitars are chugging and at times get a bit technical. I would have loved to hear the guitars be a bit more technical. The bass was made present when it needed to be, and certainly shined at various points on ‘Being’.
The two tunes that I constantly kept putting on repeat were “Human” and “Ineffable”. Both songs capture the best of both worlds of Aegaeon’s song writing. There are heavy breakdowns, melodic passages, and an abundance of guitar riffage.
Overall, ‘Being’ is a very solid production. Clocking in at just under twenty two minutes, Aegaeon manage to take their fans on quite an out of this world journey. The EP scored a respectable 8.5/10.
Aegaeon’s ‘Being’ was independently released on July 20, 2012. You can preview the songs and/or purchase the EP HERE.
