### Aenaon: Cendres et sang

#### 13/01/12 || BamaHammer

Here’s a band with a name that looks like a cluster of unfortunate opening tiles in a game of Scrabble. I seriously can’t even decide how to pronounce the name in my head. Well, at least their music doesn’t suck. Oh wait, it does.

The label hails this as “progressive black metal and a lot more.” The album starts with a saxophone solo so it must be some type of “progressive” metal, right? The honest truth is that these guys are just not original at all. Black metal by definition is unoriginal these days, but it just feels like these guys shamelessly stole elements from other bands. It’s like they heard Ulver’s “Perdition city” and Primordial’s entire catalog and then decided that they, too, could create that style of music by emulating those bands. I mean, Ektomorf shamelessly rips off Sepultura, and everyone loves them. Genius! They also clearly got their hands on some Reason software for the drums, and despite a valiant effort to make them sound natural and human, it just sounds hokey.

Overall, it’s even a stretch to refer to this as “black metal.” It has a dark atmosphere and a little aggression, but it lacks attitude or any semblance of identity. I’m sure some people dig this kind of stuff, but it does nothing for me.

3/10: Consonant-to-vowel ratio in band names.