Aetherian
The Untamed Wilderness

Right from the start you hear that the Greek melodic death metal band Aetherian has a special ability to create strong melodies. And my sense is that they should really have done something about the vocalist because the vocals really prevent this from being an excellent album, it deserved better a better voice. The Untamed Wilderness is the debut album of the band Aetherian and they have already made impression with their video for The Rain that has amassed quite a few views on youtube.

On the subject of the music, it is melodic death metal with really strong melodies and a decent groove. I would say that it is quite fresh and catchy actually. The production is very good, the sound is strong all the way through the album and the variation is quite decent as well. But the vocals are quite dull; they kind of prevent this album from being something really great. Although they do make it a bit too long as well, I think they could have shortened it quite a bit without sacrificing anything.

Aetherian has put together a strong debut; it has so many good elements, good songs, great melodies and catchiness but it still feels a bit disappointing. The first track sort of build up some great expectations, until the singer opens his jaws and lets out his roar and ruins a lot of those high expectations. It just feels like a bad idea to have such dreary, ordinary death metal vocals on an album with this strong melodies and catchiness, it certainly deserves better vocals because that would have made the end result a lot better.

Run-of-the-mill vocals is one of the main impressions of this album, that and excellent melodies is the impression I leave this album with now that I have written this review. It is a debut that promises a lot for the band’s future, they certainly know how to make excellent melodies – they just have to address the vocals if they want to realise that great potential.

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