Towards Atlantis Lights – Dust of Aeons (Review)

Towards Atlantis Lights is an international project that plays atmospheric doom metal. This is their debut album.

Featuring members of Pantheist, Aphonic Threnody, Dea Marica, Arrant Saudade, and Void of Silence, a lot of experience and expertise has clearly been poured into this album.

Containing only four tracks, (the first of which is a whopping 30 minutes in length), the entire album clocks in at a little under a full hour in duration. Dust of Aeons is an ambitious and well-delivered slab of emotive doom. The band’s style is that of funeral doom mixed with a touch of death/doom. The band seem to channel the early Peaceville-era UK doom bands, stretching their legacy out and slowing it down until we get the enchanting material on Dust of Aeons.

The songs are heavy and gloomy, rich in melodic leads, and dripping with emotive atmosphere. It’s slow and crushing stuff, with a heaviness that comes from both the guitar department and from the carefully crafted feelings and moods that are evoked. Keyboards are used to add extra layers of depth to the music, and these are played and arranged effectively.

The vocals consist of a mix of clean singing and deep growls. The growls are performed well, but it’s the clean singing that really does it for me on this release, (which is unusual, as it’s almost always the other way around with this sort of music, usually). The singer’s voice seems to work in concert with the music to enrich it further.

Colossal and sprawling, Dust of Aeons is a very satisfying release. Full of emotive and atmospheric music, it’s easy to get sucked into the world that Towards Atlantis Lights have created here. If you’re a fan of this kind of music then do yourself a favour and give this some time.