Faethon: Immortal Ancient Spirit

Although not being impressed by this disc at first, subsequent listens felt more enjoyable. Faethon is, in fact, a one man act, the creation of solitary composer and multi-instrumentalist called Apollo.

There are nothing hidden about what Faethon is standing for: Paganism metal arts. Just by looking at the cover art and you know what Immortal Ancient Spirit was meant to be. This album contains five original tracks and two covers. The First one, "The Gates of Heaven", from Absurd, seems a little out of place. Pretty un-Pagan title for one thing, then the guitar sound is heavy and crunchy; besides the vocals are of the clean type. Right after you have "May the Hammer Smash the Cross", a Thor's Hammer cover, which is more suiting the vibe of this album. Opening and closing tracks are instrumentals. "The Silence Whispers of the Pagan Country Side" is a nine minutes plus ambient piece made of animal samplings (birds, cat, wolves etc…) and keyboards; a very pleasant introduction. Closer, "Visions of the Glorious Past" is more epic with a folksy hymn, also very nice to listen. The bulk of the compositions contains moderate and fast tempos, distorted guitar work, haunted keyboard patterns, discrete/echoing, and sometimes wicked, rasps. Faethon's music remains melodic by adding leads, arpeggios and the likes into the song structure. I found the production a bit muddy and raw, and I believe that by improving this point, it could only benefit the artist's work. Besides the instrumentals, a couple of other compositions caught my attention, namely: "The Forest is Alive" and "Till the Next Avalon".

Track listing:
1 – The Silent Whispers of the Pagan Countryside
2 – Awakening of the Blood
3 – The Forest is Alive
4 – Till the Next Avatar
5 – The Gates of Heaven (Absurd cover)
6 – May the Hammer Smash the Cross (Thor's Hammer cover)
7 –Visions of the Glorious Past

Added: February 17th 2010
Reviewer: Denis Brunelle
Score:
Related Link: Blazing Productions
Hits: 3096
Language: english

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