In Aphelion - Reaperdawn

Angry Metal Guy 50

A celestial object is in aphelion when it is at the point in its orbit where it is farthest away from the sun. Good god, that sounds so nice right about now. Yes, I live in the temperate Pacific Northwest, and yes, my summer has probably been way cooler than yours, but that doesn’t change the fact that summer fucking sucks. Give me 40-50°F and rainy any day over this 80+ sunny bullshit. I blame my inability to handle warmer temperatures on DNA I inherited from my straight-outta-Norway great-great-grandad, Knut,¹ and I can’t wait until fall and winter rear their damp, dreary heads and restore some goddamn order around here. In the meantime, it would be nice to have some sort of musical cooldown; yes, a fresh batch of icy black metal through which I could fantasize about wet, windy days and early falling nights would probably be just what the doctor ordered. Enter In Aphelion. These guys wowed me so much with their debut record Moribund that it earned a top-3 spot on my year-end list for 2022. Let’s see if follow-up Reaperdawn can follow suit and cure my horrendous case of swamp-ass.

Originally intended to be an outlet for Necrophobic guitarist Sebastian Ramstedt’s more progressive ideas, In Aphelion quickly auto-corrected its sound into that of a ferocious melodic black metal band. Ramstedt, who handles lead guitar and vocal duties for the project, quickly recruited Necrophobic’s other guitarist Johan Bergebäck to perform the rhythm parts and Cryptosis drummer Marco Prij, and after initially handling bass himself, this time Ramstedt has handed that job off to Necrophobic’s Tobias Christiansson. Needless to say, In Aphelion’s output has a strong Necrophobic bent while still maintaining it’s own unique identity. Embedded single “When All Stellar Light is Lost” shows the band’s Necrophobic sensibilities with its melodic tremolo intro, but injects a far more savage, thrashy attack than that more well-known band is used to employing. Ramstedt’s vocals are the perfect black metal utterances, and his solo towards the end of the song is spellbinding.

Reaperdawn (24-bit HD audio) by In Aphelion

In Aphelion are definitely at their best when they lean into their strengths of laying down aggressive black metal laced with majestic, frozen melody. The title track is the perfect example. Like the aforementioned “When All Stellar Light is Lost,” it oozes Dissection-y energy and exhibits Ramstedt and Bergebäck’s considerable chemistry as a guitar duo. It’s the kind of song that hearkens back to the glory of Moribund, and I can almost feel myself howling from atop a snow-covered peak as I listen to it.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of Reaperdawn brings me back down to my sweltering reality. Moribund was so amazing because it had multiple Song o’ the Year contenders and the rest of its songs nearly matched those. That just isn’t the case here at all. The world-beater highs just aren’t present, and when they almost land (see the incredible conclusion to “They Fell Under Blackened Skies”), they often have a bit too much extraneous material smothering them. Reaperdawn is eight tracks and 50 minutes, and while it is shorter than its predecessor, the material doesn’t feel nearly as essential—alas, there’s not a single song on the level of “Let the Beast Run Wild” here. Many of these songs (“The Field in Nadir,” “A Winter Moon’s Gleam,” “Further From the Sun,” “They Fell Under Blackened Skies,” “Aghori”) could have been trimmed by a minute, or three, to enhance their effect, and I think that may have strengthened the entire album. “When All Stellar Light is Lost” and “Reaperdawn” are great tracks, but overall, Reaperdawn feels like it meanders too much—many of the atmospheric bits seem to add less to the equation than last time around—and I kept finding myself wishing the guys would just keep the pedal mashed to the floor.

I was hoping for an arctic blast to the nether regions, but what I got felt more like a lukewarm soak. Like me, Reaperdawn bears incredible strength but suffers from a bit too much flab. It was always going to be hard for In Aphelion to match their magnificent debut, and while they muster up a couple of fantastic songs here, the rest get lost in a haze of excess. For my money, this year’s Necrophobic feels far more vital. Reaperdawn sounds like a band pushing against the boundaries of its identity, but in the process, that identity has become blurred and dulled. I hope these guys can hone things down and come for my throat next time.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 128 kb/s mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Website: facebook.com/inaphelion
Releases Worldwide: August 9th, 2024

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