Release date: 23rd January 2019
Before we even dive into the music featuring on Aamamata (pun somewhat intended), just take a look at that cover image. Doesn’t it just scream power? Honestly, the artwork alone made me want to check this album out, and that’s before we even get into the fact that Helevorn’s style is one of my favourite genres (melodic/gothic doom).
I’m a sucker for crushingly heavy music coupled with beautiful melodies, so Aamamata is right up my street. The instrumentation is stunning; it’s gloriously heavy and then the keys in particular add a wonderful element of beauty to the album, helping to keep the listener engaged rather than just. Additionally, the stunning cleans and powerful harsh vocals really help give the album body, as both are performed to a very high quality from start to finish. The balance is there, with everything blending together fantastically.
Second track Goodbye, Hope is a good example of this. The song starts fairly gently and softly, with more melodic instrumentation and clean vocals, before progressing into a heavier style with harsh vocals that hit you like a tonne of bricks. What works especially well with this track is the perfectly punctuated piano lines that add melody alongside the harsh vocals – it helps keep the song more engaging rather than just blasting the listener with noise and nothing else. Fifth track Forgotten Fields is another great inclusion. The spoken vocals are a nice touch, mixing things up a little, and the soaring guitar melodies make the track sound absolutely massive as a result.
The only issue with Aamamata is that Helevorn don’t exactly reinvent the wheel. There’s no denying that the music featuring on the album is fantastic, but there’s nothing about it to set Helevorn apart from fellow bands in their genre – there’s a lot of bands out there playing melo-doom extremely well, so they do get a little lost in the crowd.
Despite this, there’s no doubting that Aamamata is an stunning bit of work (and certainly makes me want to check out their back-catalogue). Everything works so well and it’s a very confident and coherent piece – Helevorn have done well here.
8/10
