Review by Jason Guest

Australian Prog/technical Death Metallers Aeon of Horus’ debut album has been upon this earthly plane since 2008 and thanks to a Midlands-based record label, Harvest Moon Records, has finally found its way to these shores. A flawlessly executed album, The Embodiment of Darkness and Light is thirty six minutes of technical proficiency, musical mastery, sheer brute force and philosophical wizardry that should establish the band on the scene across the northern hemisphere.

The album has a narrative structure beginning with the destruction of galaxies in the opening track ‘3C321’, moving from the conquering of the corporeal and the mundane through the annihilation of false idols. The search for the true meaning of existence culminates in the dawn of a new era and a supernatural entity that embodies the True Will of Crowley’s maxim to ‘Do What thou Wilt’. This philosophical excursion through the deep and under-explored structures of reality and existence is matched only by the complex yet fluid compositions. These four adept musicians shift effortlessly across a whole universe of time shifts, textures, and atmospheres from intricate patterns and intense riffs to Kubrickian soundscapes and melodic and epic passages. The guitar, bass, and drum work is second to none, and Andy Annand’s vocals emanate from somewhere deeper than down under. The album is a work that successfully combines the musical with the philosophical into something that is greater than its parts.

The Embodiment of Darkness and Light is a deftly woven journey through the esoteric, the occult, and intense and outstanding musicianship. The production is as finely tuned as every riff is intricate, as every drum beat machine gun-like, and as every lyric is vehemently concentrated. As governments the world over continue to masquerade their oppression as freedom and the vacuity of celebrity culture tramples over the very notion of independent thought, the need for self-direction becomes increasingly apparent and this album is all the more poignant for it. 2011 should see the band writing and recording their follow up album. Like the central theme of this album, this band and this album has been kept down under for way too long. The Aeon of Horus is upon us.

9 out of 10

www.myspace.com/aeonofhorus

For a free download of their 2007 EP, visit the discography section of their website: www.aeonofhorus.net

To buy this album, visit Harvest Mood Records: www.harvestmoonrecords.net