AETERNUS - Shadows Of Old LP (Orange/Yellow Marble Vinyl)

2024 reissue on orange/yellow fire vinyl. Edition of 300. Includes a two-sided lyric insert.

It’s certainly not as dense, atmospheric, subtle or interesting as the previous two releases but hey, neither are any other metal albums bar about 5 or 6 at the most. Death metal with a clear sense of ancient spirit, plenty of variation in tempo, plenty of acoustic folk melodies and piano passages, transitions between the epic and the brutal, quite a bit of subtlety and changes in mood - that’s what’s on offer here. This certainly doesn’t feel like a failed attempt at capturing the essence of earlier offerings - rather a conscious decision to follow a different direction, and one that’s executed rather impressively, at that.