Review: AETHYRICK – Praxis

Year of release: 2018
Label: The Sinister Flame
Rating: 7,8 / 10

The second disc from The Sinister Flame promo package received at my address is the debut album of the Finnish AETHYRICK, which, according to the modern fashion, prefer to be encrypted, hiding their faces under the masks. In my opinion, the do that in vain - they have nothing to be ashamed of, the album was very good.

Contrary to local traditions, AETHYRICK play not the orthodoxal Black Metal, but quite impressive and beautiful Atmospheric Metal with deep spirituality and ritual overtones. I did not see Satanism here (just some easy-going devilry) but the lyrics very well and eloquently reveal the theme of worshiping the primordial fiery essence of the Earth, which can both endow the emerging life with its warmth or burn it to the core... The texts for the album came out much more complex than music, therefore they deserve careful study.

As for music, it is quite consciously based on proven style solutions. There is a warm guitar sound, a lot of melody and long riffs laid on the blast beats. Of course, fast and slow fragments are interspersed with inserts with a classic "burzumic" mid-tempo rhytms. Absolutely nothing new. On such albums everything depends on the quality of the melodies, and I am pleased to announce that "Praxis" got very high standards. And the quality is rising along the way. The first song is not very impressive, but the second one makes you shake your head to the beat, and then everything becomes even better. The band manages to keep a balance between “entertainment” and seriousness, between softness and gloominess. Additional elements, such as synthesizer parts, do not let the music stagnate, constantly develop it, add a new dimension. The album invokes a feeling of something high-spirited; the photograph of the mountains, flooded by the rays of the rising sun making their way through the clouds, in the center of the booklet conveys this feeling in the best way possible.

However, I must note that “Praxis” seems to me a bit too smooth for an album addressing the basics of existence. There is power and magic in it, but there is no primordiality that would paint a picture of the “place almost forgotten by modern mind" in your brain - as it described in the press release. If the music on the album is OK, then the sound is too "Hollywoodish", it does not allow you to feel involved in what the lyrics are about. This is definitely a flaw.

Unfortunately, “Praxis” came to me without an inlay, so I decided not to make the usual video with a detailed view on the release. Let me just say that the booklet is pretty simply designed: in addition to the above-mentioned photo in the middle, there are only texts and some occult symbol inside. Based on the foregoing, I recommend the album to fans of good atmospheric music with clever lyrics (the nearest reference points are ODIOUS DEVOTION and EARTH & PILLARS).