This is the third album from Aodon, a black metal band from France.
Portraits is the follow up to 2020’s 11069, and features 46 minutes of sleek, quality material. If you liked 11069, then Portraits is the upgraded version.
Portraits boasts is an atmospheric blend of blackened ingredients that form nine engaging songs. With a compelling mix of melody, aggression, and mood, wrapped up in an intriguing concept, Aodon’s second album is a well-crafted work.
These new songs demonstrate Aodon’s easy familiarity with their chosen genre. It’s a contemporary form of black metal, one that sits somewhere at the nexus between the atmospheric, melodic, and post-black metal styles. Across the album you can also hear influences from blackgaze and depressive black metal, which add further texture to the songs. As well as this, there’s an aggressive intensity here that’s very welcome, showcasing the fact the Aodon are well aware that black metal has teeth, and Portraits has a mean bite when it needs to.
Aodon bring together all of these various elements with skilled hands, resulting in music that’s easy to like if you’re a fan of the source material. Everything here is produced, performed, and executed well, but the melodies in particular are noteworthy. Carrying emotion and atmosphere well, there’s also a hooky level of memorability to many of them that’s most agreeable.
Portraits is an accomplished and professional album that should find Aodon many new fans. If you’re in the market for an emotive and immersive brand of modern black metal that has an aggressive edge, then look no further than this.
Highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 