Midwinter Fires, April 28th, 2012 

Aeon Winds is a relatively young project from Slovakia. The band was started in 2007 and produced a demo called “Aeon” in 2008 which was eventually released in 2010. From what I gather the project consisted of one member in the early days though recently added a second member. The band plays ambient black metal blending soft atmospheres and warm melodies with dark, cold black metal. Those Who Will Remain Silent Forever is the band’s second release.

“Aeons of Crime” is the first track of the album and a beautiful introduction to the band. It’s an acoustic based song with folk and classical elements. The song uses both female vocals and clean male vocals. The vocals are done pretty well, especially the female vocals which bring a sweet sorrow to the song. It’s a far cry from the next track “Black Spell of Destruction” which is a very raw sounding, black metal song with an old school feel to it. The song is actual a bit of a mix between black metal and ambient. The vocals use sort of a high pitched growl/scream mixed with normal style mid-range black metal growls. The music is cold but melodic and I like that the bass isn’t afraid to do a little run here and there.

The third track is a very interesting track. It’s called “Cold Winds” and to be honest I’ve listened to it many times and I still can’t decide if I like or not. It’s a little different than the first two tracks. The song starts out with a basic 3 note keyboard melody and when the drums enter the picture they have a bit of an electronic, hip-hop kind of feel to them. Maybe it’s just my imagination. Anyway, the vocals are clean singing for the most part with some black metal growls thrown into the mix here and there. Just after the half way point the guitars join in following the keyboards. The last 20 seconds ends the song with an acoustic guitar.

“In Embrace of a Nameless” is the fourth track. It’s an ambient instrumental song using various keyboard sounds including a church bell sounding effect. At only 1 minute in length it’s a brief calm before the storm that is the fifth track “Nechcenna Pravda“. Right out of the gates everything is coming in full force. Again it has the old school black metal feel to it which I like. For the most part the vocals use the more traditional black metal growl and contribute to the old school feel. The heavy sections have some good melody and with around 1 and half minutes to go the heaviness turns to acoustic for a short interlude before returning to the faster paced guitars and drumming. The keyboards do some weird albeit interesting things near the end as the song finishes much the same way as it started… at full speed.

The sixth track “On the Way to Oblivion” begins with a beautiful acoustic guitar piece. As the song progresses soft female vocals add a dream-like, melancholic atmosphere. Keyboards add warmth and atmosphere. Overall it’s a subtle piece but it’s quite beautiful in it’s simplicity. As the song ends it almost goes without saying that the seventh track “Thorns of Destiny” once again picks up the pace and heaviness. There are parts in this song that remind be slightly of some old school Darkthrone… Soulside Journey era. It’s catchy and melodic and there’s enough variation throughout the song that it keeps it all very interesting. The distortion once again gives way to the acoustic guitars with just under a minute left.

“Through the Gates of Dying Me” starts out like it’s going to be another ambient piece but after a short ambient intro with some tribal-like drumming the song turns back to black metal. It’s another short track coming in just over a minute and a half. It’s full of interesting melodies that make me wish it would have just kept on going but alas it does come to a quick end. That’s okay because the ninth track “Vladci Hor” is another good heavy black metal song filled with atmosphere and melodic tremolo picking. Mid way through the song slows down slightly as they become a back drop for some spoken word. The song continues to slow down and the acoustic guitars make a brief appearance before the song once again picks up. To my surprise there is a short guitar solo which ends with a chorus of chanting voices. The song ends on a high note with the guitars and bass all complimenting each other with slightly varied harmonies.

The album ends with a track called “When the Dead Take Our Lives“. It’s another short song but it’s filled with eerie keyboard effects mixed with warm, soft melodies. Near the end of the song the ambient atmosphere begins to pick up just in time for the song to end.

Going into this review I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Aeon Winds. I’m happy to say that the album didn’t disappoint me. The mixture between the ambient songs and the black metal kept things interesting. There was plenty of atmosphere and melody in the softer songs and I liked the old school feel of the heavier songs. I also liked that the album had it’s own sound and feel to it. Sure there were parts where I could say this sounds a bit like this band or that sounds a little like that band but I could take any band and say those kinds of things. The main thing is that as a whole the album had it’s own vibe and I felt like I was listening to Aeon Wind and no one else. 

Originally posted on MidwinterFires.com

NausikaDalazBlindaz, August 17th, 2016 

Seeing as these two Slovak BM bands share a member and both bands express a common interest in Slavic mythology, you really don't need a crystal ball to predict that sooner rather than later Aeon Winds and Concubia Nocte would release a split album. Aeon Winds contribute four songs that take up the first half of the album and Concubia Nocte fill up the second half with five songs. 

The overall style of the album could be described as harsh raw black metal with folk pagan, symphonic and ambient influences that occasionally throws out some heavy atmospheric bluesy mood music. Aeon Winds mix up their brand of fast-paced raw and aggressive blast-beat BM with dark ambient and folk resulting in a cold and forbidding yet dramatic and powerful style. "The Path of Devouring Flames" rockets along at super speed, guitars sparking on fire and synthesiser barely managing to keep up with this music in full attack mode. The vocals are just barely audible above the rapid pounding and if only they had been a bit more upfront in the mix and had more rage the song would be even more forceful and uncompromising than it is. After this song, the band goes straight to the instrumental dark ambient side of its personality with "In Times of Old", a hypnotic orchestral mood piece with dreamy trilling keyboards and animated acoustic guitar melodies. Birdsong in the background adds a feeling of brightness and serenity. Aeon Winds' contribution concludes with a cover of an Emperor song "Inno a Satana" delivered in straightforward melodic black metal style with steely grinding riffs and harsh wraith-like vocals. The synthesiser layer in this song seems completely unnecessary.

Concubia Nocte have a similar split raw BM / ambient style and the music is equally as fast. The band seems to combine its machine-gun raw BM aggression and folk pagan elements better than Aeon Winds but then this difference could just be a consequence of the songs both bands chose to include on the split. Concubia Nocte's music sounds slightly more accessible and songs have a definite Odinpop feel in their riffs, melodies and general song-based structures. Of the five tracks on offer, the highlight is the very powerful and hard-hitting "Večná Vôľa" which boasts huge riffs, thunderous percussion and a constant grinding bass groove. The thin vocals are all but overpowered by the huge scale of the music. Keyboards on a track like this are really unneeded but the band includes them anyway. "S Posledným Lúčom Slnka" is a more underground and garage-sounding BM track, fiery and malevolent and threatening in its style and attitude, and offering some moody surprises in its otherwise rapid-fire spitting rage.

Both bands are good but I much prefer Concubia Nocte for their aggression and sound. The band relies much less on synthesiser and its sound is stronger, less pallid as a result. Whatever keyboards exist are really surplus to the music and the band could, maybe should, junk the synthesisers altogether. If both bands must have additional instruments, I'd much rather they had acoustic keyboard instruments. Aeon Winds have a more tinny and thinner sound which disadvantages them when they are paired with the other band. On the whole though, this split is a good introduction to both bands and to Slovak black metal.