ATARAXY - Revelations of the Ethereal (2012)

A Journey to the Ethereal

This album is like a drug. The more I listen to, the more I lust for it. But, on the start, me and “Revelations of the Ethereal” weren’t good friends. I just found it as a mediocre portion of metal meal. Fortunately the album didn’t want to leave me alone, I gave it a chance and… something has sparkled. This Zaragoza-based crew that grew out of the Finnish and Swedish old school fertile soils, tries to create their own morbid visions. The patterns are splendid, yet it’s very easy without any hindrance to be another clone on the scene. The answer on ‘did the Spaniards avoid being next blind copy-cat?’ sounds: YES!

The musicians didn’t have to show any spectacular and unique abilities in playing on their instruments, they bombed my heart with simple means exclusively and conquered it forever. Produced in Moontower with the help of Javi Félez, it elbows on my desk casting all the titles down.  And even if Ataraxy is marked as death metal (what a name for a band?!), they aren’t like a bolide of Fernando Alonso. No, the Spaniards aren’t pressed for time, there is no hurry. The death is evident, yet doom genre should be added to Ataraxy description as well. And now I know it, during listening to the opening introduction, the Ataraxy path leads to something uncommon. But the album doesn’t abduct me in the brutal way, it’s just like it gives me its strong hand. So slowly… to the ethereal dimensions. Yep, there are some speed-ups, in every song, but they are not the most important thing, as the slow monumental overwhelming riffs are basis here. It is proper to plunge in awesome tunes of melodic guitars that decorated each songs, entwining my senses astonishingly with ease.      

Simple music, but… definitely not as a background for everyday works. Simple music, but… only with closing eyes in a dark room, at night… Yes, then one becomes a passenger. Simple music, but it’s very hard to choose the best track. I say more, it’s an impossible task. And with the final great result while listening to it from the first second to the last one. At this juncture, the heavy sounds descend upon the willing senses, willing to go on a journey. With a mind immersed in chaos and unreachable spheres, under veiled skies through necrotic shadow of decay and ceremonial flames on ominous putrefied ground, facing the demons of the storm, I fall into the ethereal slumber…

The Spaniards recorded a splendid slab of monstrous death and doom metal that holds me really tight and doesn’t let me live without. From the front cover perfectly referring to the text layers to the last seconds of closing song. Rooted in the old-schoolish matrix, they manage to create their own musical alley, with no useless sound or word. And believe me, there is the true essence of metal where doom and death weave another cryptic creation. The creation I follow…

93/100

-Tlacaxipehualiztli

(written on March, 2015)