Info
- Band(s): Adon
- Label(s): Neuropa Records, The Metalhead Box
- Release Format(s): CD
- Release Year: 2024
- Review Date: August 5, 2025
- Author(s): Huw
2024 saw the release of Californian Blackened Death outfit Adon’s self-titled debut full-length album. Dark, progressive, occasionally emotive, and very heavy; Adon is clearly a duo whose ambitions stretch in many directions whilst maintaining a respectable amount of overall focus.
Album opener ‘Ascension’ begins with an anthemic and catchy chugging riff accompanied by some subtle but effective synths. The song is loaded with layered vocals and saturated with blast beats that generate a very busy and plump instrumental mix. The most obvious strength is the tastefully implemented and crisp modern production style. Track two ‘Æther’ hastily plunges the listener back into the band’s head spinning avalanche for the initial minute of runtime before transitioning into a Middle Eastern tinged section replete with multiple soaring guitar solos. This section is a necessary palate cleanser from the unyielding double bass sections.
The clear star of the album is the sprawling title track. ‘Adon’ with its nearly 17 minutes of runtime serves up a generous helping of the band’s muscular and drum heavy Blackened Death. The guitar work features an interesting usage of wailing pitch harmonics amongst some of the best and most exciting riff passages on the album. The band flits between their typical onslaught and numerous sections of differing musical tempos to offer breathing room. Around the midsection of the song; during a particularly spacious breakdown, amongst the sound of misty summoning chants and a military war drum style snare roll pattern, the band breaks into a creative use of strange time signatures and doomy drones. Towards the latter stages of the track, the band builds towards an epic conclusion using both choral and gang vocals, whilst the instrumentation frequently teases the impending crescendo. If Adon’s album was a movie showing at a theatre, then the title track alone would justify the price of admission.
Later tracks in the album bring plenty of catchy moments, although the band seems to be recycling certain ideas a bit too frequently by this point. The finale ‘Æon’ makes use of another grand, transcendental crescendo to close the album out on a reasonably high note. I will say that throughout the album’s runtime the unyielding double bass does become stale pretty quickly and despite the quality production that has been applied to these recordings the over use of bass drums is not only slightly fatiguing but actually frequently distracts and obscures the other instruments to their hindrance. That said, when taking into account the record’s strengths, Adon makes the sort of proggy, complicated, and epic modern metal that I could see appealing to fans of Fallujah and Ne Obliviscaris.
Adon
- Country: USA
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal
- Links: Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube
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Neuropa Records
- Country: Belgium
- Style: Black Metal, Other
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram
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The Metalhead Box
- Country: USA
- Style: Black Metal, Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Speed Metal, Grindcore, Other
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram
