Post-Metal is, by definition or de facto, a form of metal that defies the boundaries of any other sub-genre and goes beyond categorization because it is an amalgam of different genres and thus steps above classical forms of metal like death metal or doom metal. Aegos from Texas released a debut album several months ago that unfortunately only caught our ears right now for it exemplifies the notion of post-metal to the t. Ladies and Gentlemen, behold The Great Burst Of Light.
Aegos first caught my eye because of the collection of guest musicians on this record: whenever names like Bruce Lamont (known for his work in Corrections House and Yakuza) or Chelsea Murphy (vocalist for Dawn Of Ouroboros) are mentioned, my interest is up. However, the list of guest musicians includes no bass, no guitar nor drums or synths. Thus it is likely that there is a full band behind the record – as they try to remain secretive (e.g. there is no Facebook account) everyone’s guess is as good as mine.
However, it is awesome to hear the way they and their bandmates take the means of various metal genres (death metal vocals, doom and funeral doom structures, progressive signatures) and melt them into one really cohesive record. Some ideas what is meant with that? Listen to the third, ”Chaos And Nebulous” and fourth track, ”Qualia” respectively, both are highly different from each other, but there is a nicely woven, slightly ethereal (grey) line going through both. Something in the mix bonds all the songs nicely together, and if I was an syn-aesthete I would surely describe the sound as a grainy grey, part of it lies in the bass which is somehow the middle between classic playing and pure tapping The recording of the cymbals is also one of those unifying elements. However, both tracks differ immensely with ”Chaos And Nebulous” being somewhat of a straight rocker (with a lot of nice industrial bends and twists at some point). ”Qualia” on the other hand is highly atmospheric with a lot of wonderfully elegant doom parts and perfectly-integrated female guest vocals. The track makes great use of some nice, jazzy drumming at the beginning, but do not think of it like the show-offy kind of jazz, more like some really well-placed, song-orientated version of it. When the ethereal vocals set in and the guitar works its little dissonant magic in the back one can imagine Texas being the setting to Dune and the spice war. When the death metal vocals take over this war illusion is even more applicable. However, the saxophone part by Bruce in the second half of the track gives it less of a Death Metal character and more like a Zorn-meets-Post-Metal-meets-Maghrebbian-rhythms idea.
This were only two of the five tracks here and not wanting to spill too much here, I can only stress that if you like your post-metal open and refreshingly diverse – then Aegos and their take on the “genre” (aka we don’t give a …) should get onto your list for you don’t want to miss out on this any longer!
