ASPHODELUS - Stygian Dreams CD

Stygian Dreams feels like a project lovingly crafted and passionately executed. Asphodelus is the brainchild of three Finnish gentlemen, of whom Jari Filppu bore the largest burden in the recording process, taking on vocals, bass, and some guitar duties. Themes of bearing burdens and grouping in small numbers seems appropriate, given that the most obvious influence on Asphodelus is the debut album Dance of December Souls of then-understaffed Katatonia (given that vocalist Jonas Renkse also occupied the drum stool). Stygian Dreams is attended with the same sense of unfathomable, philosophical sorrow; the same spaciously melodic guitars, even a similar airy guitar tone; the same brainwave of asking your producer to play keyboards, a task by which Tomi Pekkola makes the album doubly epic. And yet, Asphodelus manage to turn their debut into something a little more than mere Katatonia worship.