In Aphelion 🇸🇪 / 🇳🇱 Moribund

Band: In Aphelion
Title: Moribund
Label: Edged Circle Productions
Release date: 11 March 2022
Country: Sweden / Netherlands
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording

Well… how to start with this review, when there are so many things I can say about this album? Let’s go from the beginning: “Moribund” opens with “World Serpent (Devourer of Dreams)”, an intense track, where this demonic trio settles what their sound is like: dark, fast, menacing, totally relentless, full of Black Metal riffs and overpowering drums, with some classic Heavy Metal elements.

Now that you have an idea of the music, let me tell you that In Aphelion is the band formed by Sebastian Ramstedt (lead guitars, vocals, bass), Johan Bergebäck (rhythm guitars) and Marco Prij (drums). You probably know the two guitar players as they both are in Necrophobic and if you are familiar with that band, you know how great they play together. In addition, there’s Marco from Cryptosis on drums, providing excellent percussion work.

I’ll just go and highlight some parts of the album, as it’s a massive beast!

The intro and the final part of “Draugr” is totally influenced by classic Heavy Metal. I’m mesmerized listening to the guitars entwining in a very melodic passage with drums playing at a slower pace. But don’t relax: next comes “Let the Beast Run Wild”, a blasting sonic attack that will leave you stunned. Like I said at the beginning, there are many remarkable aspects in this album, one of these is the ultra fast pace that Marco Prij can deliver at some points. I love the blasting sound he triggers in the aforementioned song and in “Moribund”, the furious outbursts in “Draugr”, and also at the end of the album, it’s something that totally wraps you mercilessly!

The slowest track, “This Night Seems Endless”, it’s like a precious dark oasis in the middle of the album, probably to let the listener catch their breath and go on with the following songs. ‘Cause there’s not much room for calming down with “Moribund”, and I truly love the maintained high level of aggression through my ears when it comes to Black Metal!

Sebastian’s vocals are raspy, dark, full of rage… Totally fitting the aggression delivered by the instruments. I like the fact that it’s pretty intelligible, not a mere “urgggh wooorg groooowrg” thing. He also delivers some menacing harsh screams that make the songs even darker, if that’s possible. And lyrics are talking about darkness, demons, evil forces… yeah, that’s what I was expecting!

The riffs on this album are great, some of them really infectious (as in “Luciferian Age” and “Moribund”, very catchy and energetic), and the guitar solos are killer! I particularly love the one in “This Night Seems Endless”. I also like the bass predominance at some points, as in “Luciferian Age”. Listening to the sound of the bass specially in Black Metal is a thing I always love. And in “Sorrow, Fire and Hate” has also a featured role, the slow guitar&bass intro and outro for this track is totally classic sounding. Here it is noticeable that Sebastian Ramstedt is inspired by classic Heavy Metal/NWOBHM music, as he said in the interview I did to him a few months ago.

As I mentioned before, the album ends with an ultra blasting track, “Requiem”, where Marco beats his drum kit mercilessly, maintaining that high pace on his pedals almost all the time… oh, he is The Blasting Dutch Beast! This closing theme is furious and wild, can’t stop headbanging during these 5 minutes like a maniac (even more intensely than all through the whole album!), what a great way to end!!

Those of you who think that an album of an hour is too long, well… listen to “Moribund” and let’s see if you think the same at the end. The songs are varied and different from each other, it’s a very dynamic album with a lot of remarkable details. In fact, when it’s over I always listen to “Requiem” twice ‘cause I resist that the album is over! No flaws, no fillers… pure perfection. This deserves 10/10 for me Sílvia

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10/10 Immortal Classic
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