Aephanemer - Prokopton

On September 16th 2016, Aephanemer released its first full-length ‘’Memento Mori’’ which fulfilled the strong expectations of their active and fast-growing fanbase and generated important interest from specialized press. ‘’Memento Mori’’ allowed Aephanemer to establish themselves as one of the most serious newcomers of the Melodic Death Metal scene. A few months after the album release, Lucie joined the band as the new bass player and followed the team on long series of festivals in six different countries, eventually leading to a triumphant show at Wacken Open Air 2018 in front of eight thousand headbanging metal enthusiasts driven by the band’s melodies and stage presence.After two years of songwriting and live performance, Aephanemer is ready to release its sophomore album ‘’Prokopton’’ on March 2019. On this occasion, Niklas Sundin (DARK TRANQUILLITY) took care of the album design while Dan Swanö (UNISOUND AB) and Mika Jussila (FINNVOX STUDIOS) handled the audio production.

Aephanemer’s ‘’Memento Mori’’ was one of the first albums that I reviewed for Lyrical Spell Magazine. Since then I never stopped following them and even joined their street team/fanclub. I am incredibly excited that I get to review ‘’Prokopton’’ so far before the release date. (Thank you Martin!)

The album opens with title track ‘’Prokopton’’. An incredibly melodical track with the real ‘’Aephanemer-sound’’. Orchestral, cinematic instrumentals combined with harsh vocals and heavy guitars never fail to catch my heart. ‘’The Sovereign’’ was released as a single earlier this month, I highly recommend checking that one out. I absolutely love Marion’s growls, and I think she is very underappreciated in the ‘’female metal vocalist’’-community. She is a power woman with so much to offer! ‘’Dissonance Within’’ is the next track, which is as equally epic as the previous and next track ‘’Snowblind’’.

The album is fairly short with it’s eight tracks, which means that we’re already halfway with ‘’At Eternity’s Gate’’. This is an instrumental interlude for ‘’Back Again’’. The track feels a bit hollow from time to time, but it does give it that ‘’scandinavian touch’’ if you know what I mean. Both ‘’Bloodline’’ and ‘’If I Should Die’’ are amazingly brilliant tracks, I can’t describe them any other way.