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Album Reviews : Athenas Wake – Contemplation

By on July 28, 2014

Athenas Wake is a band from Geelong. Formed in 2010, they play a grand, evil and fairly interesting mix of technical death metal and atmospheric black metal. The Contemplation EP was released in June and it contains four tracks.

The first track is called Diagnosis and there’s no time wasting with a grand intro or anything like that, I’m immediately thrown into a pretty chaotic world of brutal death metal, enhanced by the atmospheric characteristics of black metal.  The vocals sound like a mix of early Oli Sykes (Bring Me the Horizon) and Jake Luhrs (August Burns Red) and they give the music a bit of deathcore feel. The Messenger continues on the beaten path with a very brutal and technical sound. The guys in Athenas Wake are obviously very gifted musicians and the way they are mixing death and black metal doesn’t only serve to give the songs more depth, it also keeps it interesting. I’m usually not a big fan of death metal but Athena’s Wake makes it work really well.

Next up is Interlude which serves as a nice break from the blackened chaos. It is an instrumental with solemn guitars and the ambience of an emergency room; beeping machines and heavy breathing. I get kicked into Remission by a mean growl, characteristic double bass pounding and guitars from the underworld. This track is by far the most interesting one in my opinion. You can hear some lead guitar work for the first time and the song is a bit more melodical than the other two songs.

As I said before, I’m not usually a big fan of death metal. I usually find it too monotone and quite boring, but Athena’s Wake manage to keep it interesting throughout the whole EP. Some different vocal styles and the black metal elements add the depth that is needed for this kind of music to work.  The production is really well balanced and solid. The awesome EP cover serves as a nice bonus as well. If you’re a fan of death metal I am sure that you will enjoy this EP. If you for some reason only would want to check out a song or two, rather than the entire EP, I would recommend you give Remission and Diagnosis a listen.

Band: Athenas Wake
Album: Contemplation
Year: 2014
Genre: Death metal
Label: Twin Peak
Origin: Geelong, VIC

Track list:
1. Diagnosis
2. The Messenger
3. Interlude
4. Remission

About

Martin is an aspiring music photographer/videographer. He is originally from the southern parts of Sweden and now he's living in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to his older sister, he got into Rammstein at the age of 9, and since then he's been into all types of metal/rock. He loves to combine photography and music, but also filming concerts and produce live material. Follow him on Twitter and check out his website.