In Aphelion – Reaperdawn

Written by on 17-08-2024 at 12:48.

So far 2024 has not been a bad year for black metal with many excellent releases. Many times “year list material” was mentioned in a review of the genre. Earlier this year Necrophobic’s tenth album was released  and reviewed. Colleague Dypfrys said with (I hope) some sense of understatement “you have to listen to this album a bit” and gave the album a score of 88. Well: In Aphelion is not an album that you have to listen to for a while. You have to get to know it from start to finish, memorize it, know where the blast beats are and which parts you can bang along to.

Who and what is In Aphelion? Well, the basis is formed by Sebastian Ramstedt and Johan Bergebäck from Necrophobic. During the pandemic that broke out more than four years ago, they suddenly had some time on their hands and instead of cleaning up the attic or re-tiling the bathroom they decided to collaborate on new music. Marco Prij from the Dutch band Cryptosis was asked to take a seat on the drum stool. This fellow apparently had the time and inclination to do so and In Aphelion soon found shelter at Century Media, whose roster already included Necrophobic and Cryptosis.

Reaperdawn is an album which completely blew me away. There is so much aggression and melody in every song! They both grab you by the balls and it is difficult to express this in words. How do you explain the feeling of standing in a sandstorm and at the same time feeling like you’re drowning? Because that’s what this album does to you: every riff is spot on, catchy and melodic. The drums are phenomenal (partly because they were not run through a computer) and the snare sounds nice and loud. Ram on that rimshot! And then Sebastian Ramstedt’s throat… His raspy sound fits perfectly with the vicious playing that is presented and creates an icy atmosphere. This man can drink boiling water and still piss ice cubes. That must be with a throat like that.

Prij of course is a Jack-of-all-trades (Distillator and Overruled are bands in which he played and he also played live with, among others, Pestilence, Bodyfarm and Flotsam And Jetsam), but the fact that he also knows how to expertly drum a black metal album was new to me. We have of course known for a long time that he can add atmosphere to a song, but that he is able to single-handedly lift a song to greater heights with atmospheric passages (When All Stellar Light Is Lost) can be seen as an art in itself.

They Fell Under Blackened Skies shows in the intro and outro that Iron Maiden is still one of the influences but then rushes on like a runaway horse on a market square. Not a chip remains intact and everything and everyone must be destroyed. Comparisons with Watain in particular and (to a lesser extent) Marduk are everywhere but this is still a bit better in my humble opinion. This sounds as high praise but if you don’t believe me, listen to this album again. When the end of the album approaches, In Aphelion still has an ace up its sleeve: Aghori. Where Watain closed Lawless Darkness with the fourteen-minute Waters Of Ain, In Aphelion does the same in about half the time. A quiet, spooky intro with menacing vocals over it and then a catchy chorus. An epic ending to a beast of an album.

Predecessor Moribund already got a very high score on Zware Metalen, but Reaperdawn takes it even further. Even if you (like me) have been listening to black metal for over thirty years you can apparently still be surprised and blown away. Great album and  a must have! (And therefore year list material!!)

 

Score:

95/100

Label:

Century Media, 2024

Tracklisting:

  1. The Fields In Nadir
  2. A Winter Moon’s Gleam
  3. When All Stellar Light Is Lost
  4. The Darkening
  5. They Fell Under Blackened Skies
  6. Further from the Sun
  7. Reaperdawn
  8. Aghori

Line-up:

  • Sebastian Ramstedt – Vocals, guitar
  • Johan Bergebäck – Guitar
  • Tobias Cristiansson – Bass guitar
  • Marco Prij – Drums

Links: