Album Of The Year 2014 – Number 19

Welcome to Day 2 of my ‘Album of the Year 2014’ countdown. If you missed the first instalment, you can access it here: Album Of The Year 2014 – Number 20

I know I mentioned this in the last post, but I have wrestled with my list more this year than any other. Personally speaking, I have found that there may not have been the sheer breadth of great music this year but that there have been a number of really excellent releases that has made it very tricky to settle on a final top 20. As a result, some great albums are going to miss out but as always, I’ll mop these up and explain my decisions on them once the countdown is complete.

Aeon of Horus
Existence
Independent Release

How on Earth is this band not currently signed to a record label? Come to think of it, why is this band not signed to a big label? When I said that I wrote my blog as a way of bringing great music to a wider audience, it’s the likes of Aeon of Horus that I hope will ultimately benefit.

Currently unsigned, it surely can’t be long before the wider metal community cotton on to how good this band is. I mentioned them before in my round-up of the best that Australia has to offer and for good reason. Missed that post? Click here. If you want extreme metal with a great blend of technicality, brutality and melody, this should be high up your list.

Several months have now passed since I wrote the ‘Australia’ post, but I stand by what I wrote about Aeon of Horus then, which is as follows:

‘Aeon Of Horus play the kind of extreme metal that I want to listen to. On the one hand, you’re handed an aural beating at the hands of a relentlessly uncompromising rhythm section, savage riffs and vocals that sound like they have been ripped straight out of hell. On the other, there’s a sensitive and nicely understated use of melody that helps to break up the brutality and offer something to entice listeners in for repeated spins. There’s even an occasional foray into more atmospheric, ambient territory which juxtaposes the extremity really nicely indeed.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf9bo0VSvMk&w=560&h=315]

And, if that wasn’t enough, the whole thing is held together by an impressive level of technicality that, in the hands of those less well-skilled and dextrous, would end up sounding messy to say the least. Not so here, as every passage of music is crisp, clear and surgically precise’.

To put it simply, ‘Existence’ is a fantastic extreme metal record that deserves to be heard by as wide an audience as possible. My hope is that this is not the only end of year list that Aeon Of Horus graces because that would be a bit if a travesty.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-jMAAjQIgc&w=420&h=315]

Don’t forget to check out my 2012 and 2013 lists if you missed them first time around.