As I enter my eighteenth year of reviewing music, one of the best parts remains discovering new bands and rediscovering those that had fallen off my radar or been silent for some time. French black metal band Aldaaron falls into the latter category, as they released two albums between 2010 and 2012 before falling silent for close to eight years. Both of those I reviewed favorably on past sites, with 2012’s Suprême silence taking the atmospheric and rawer foundations of its predecessor and offering more twists and turns. Ten years after that album came out on the fairly short-lived Trollzorn imprint Black Skull Records, Aldaaron is back with Arcane Mountain Cult and founder Ioldar has picked up where he left off. Despite the lengthy period of time between releases, this is a strong showing that continues to push the band’s writing forward and is sure to appeal of fans of both atmospheric and traditional black metal.
In the time that has passed between Suprême silence and Arcane Mountain Cult, the band shifted to more of a solo endeavor after featuring a full lineup before. Founder Ioldar is still collaborating with guitarist Voldr, but in a much smaller capacity as here he provides guitar solos on the last two tracks and Ioldar has done everything else himself. This hasn’t hurt the songwriting or production values though, as Arcane Mountain Cult continues the same balance between melodic and atmospheric black metal and offers huge sounding riffs and icy tonality that makes you envision exploring the cold mountain peak on the cover art. Stylistically Aldaaron falls somewhere between older French black metal and Finnish black metal when its going for harsher blasts and rawer tonality but recalls some other European variants when things slow down and the atmosphere expands in a slower manner. Ioldar has split things fairly equally in this regard, offering two fast paced shorter tracks alongside two eleven-minute pieces that vary up the tempo a bit more and provide plenty of twists and turns. The longer songs allow for periods of calm atmosphere and interludes that incorporate synths, but as a whole Arcane Mountain Cult feels like a more guitar focused effort than its predecessor and the interplay between the melodic and abrasive riffs give listeners plenty to dig into. Everything flows well together to create an entrancing atmosphere that hits you in the face like a blizzard, and this cohesion creates some stunning peaks that are sure to appeal to fans of all types of black metal. There are a few tweaks to the production that would make a difference though, as sometimes the lead guitars are just too loud and overpower the calm moments. Sometimes they jut out in a slightly awkward way and the walls of distortion and feedback seem to hover over the recording just a bit longer than they need to, which does clash with some of the more beautiful and somber passages.
The vocals come through as raspier shrieks and screams, sitting slightly above the dense layers of instrumentation in the mix. Compared to some of the other vocalists out there, Ioldar is able to vary up his pitch and deliver a more dynamic performance that keeps the intensity at a high for the entire album, and this is also helped by some ominous sounding spoken word. This doesn’t deviate significantly from the approach Aldaaron has taken since their formation, but the screams feel more refined in how they reach that peak level of spine-chilling abrasiveness. Occasionally there are some moments where they get swallowed up in the mix and struggle to break through, especially on the title track where they head into some lower registers, but this doesn’t take away from the material too much.
Despite the decade gap between albums, Aldaaron has continued to tighten up their songwriting and find a natural balance between blistering cold melodies and expansive atmosphere. A few more tweaks to give the somber and softer moments more space to breathe would help the material, but there’s no denying that Ioldar has returned in strong fashion and will hopefully gain some additional exposure given the current interest in the more atmospheric variants of black metal. It also sounds like things have picked up for Aldaaron and it won’t be another decade before we get more material, so I’ll be waiting to see just what this band has in store for us next. Arcane Mountain Cult is available from Paragon Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg