Aldaaron

Nous Reviendrons Immortels

Paragon Records 2010

French black metallers Aldaaron burst out of the wilderness with speedy, cold atmospheres and a flair for the melodic approach similar to early Dissection but without truly sounding like a clone.  After the slow building intro of sorts with Neiges Sepulcrales,  Seigneur de L'Hiver reveals a windy gust of epic sounding riffs that rely on a melodic flow and tread the borderlands between Swedish and Nordic styles.  The clean vocals and acoustic guitars towards the song's climax add a sense of depression to go with the nostalgic riff that flows out towards the track's end like an ancient river.  The clean guitars that open Instrumentale pick up with a nearly identical flow and texture as Seigneur de L'Hiver which makes the song feel even longer than it already is.  Luckily En Route Vers la Bataille introduces itself with a more authoritative melody before hitting a Nordic riff that straddles folk and thrash emotions.  All of the sudden the pace picks up and a hypnotic Swedish near-melody paints the world in a winter frost.  Royaume marches in on a martial beat and sways to and fro utilizing various black metal riffs before exploding into another captivating melody that sweeps like hurricane across a tranquil coast, a path of destruction left in its wake.  An epic atmosphere wraps you in its fold as the song develops and permutations of that same hypnotic riff swirl within the tempest before fading.  Propheties closes out the album and brings to mind Marduk at their melodic blasting best, perhaps around the Nightwing era.  A very traditional approach and a cold epic feeling permeate Aldaaron's debut album.  The songs are somewhat lengthy but the album feels focussed and dedicated to natural atmospheres without devling too far into folk or symphonic cheesiness.  Nous Reviendrons Immortels is an album that blasts you with winds of freezing cold and buries you in deep waves of snow.