Take time to appreciate slow melodies from Aphonic Threnody.
Born of the union of Riccardo V (guitar/bass, Dea Marica, Gallow God, Towards Atlantis Lights) and Roberto M (vocals, Dea Marica, Urna), the band suffered from line-up changes. For the release of The Great Hatred, their third album, Juan Escobar (keyboards/vocals/bass/guitar, Arrant Saudade, AstorVoltaires, Tetractys) and Riccardo recorded the full-length. Notice that Justin Buller (guitar, In Oblivion) is also part of the band since 2019.
Melting DoomDeath and Funeral Doom, Locura is an oppressing track, dissonant and above all very dark. Whether impressive, the vocalist’s howlings are also very plaintive, wonderfully melting to the musician’s haunting’s harmonics or leaving for comforting clean vocals. The sound is majestic but heavy, just like Interrogation, of which the worrying introduction won’t let you unmoved. Ghostly riffs carry cavernous howlings that build on an omnipresent bass to place piercing riffs. The sound becomes more shrilling and dark before disappearing into nothingness to let place to The Great Hatred. Some whispers lead us to this song’s crushing atmosphere, that will majestically explode before allowing intensity to decrease.
Drowning is also a very heady song if you appreciate those beautiful harmonics filled with pain, that easily let place to the vocalist’s massive growl. The song is slow, but offers a clean-sounding break before saturation comes back to life, guiding us to The Rise of the Phenix, the album’s longest song. Once again, sound melts majestic sonorities, melodious harmonics, worrying bass and worrying speech before a soaring final part. The Fall, the last song, is the one on which oppression and melancholy are the strongest, allowing us to enjoy one last time the musician’s sorrow before letting us as prey to darkness.
Aphonic Threnody’s universe opens anew its gates, unveiling a dark, ice-cold and majestic richness. The Great Hatred is a haunting and ringing album, that never suffers from its tracks’ important length.
85/100
