The physical release of Starless Aeon entails a cassette edition limited to 50 copies, which comes in an onyx stardream (whatever the hell that means) 6×6 box with the Starless Aeon sigil stamped on top in metallic silver ink, a 12×12 poster of the album artwork on parchment, the black, metallic-silver imprinted cassette itself in a black velvet pouch, and a black 6-inch ritual candle. It’s also available as a digital download for $6.66 via Midnite Collective’s bandcamp.

If you were guessing at this point that Starless Aeon was an album of some sort of lo-fi ritualistic black metal, I’d say it would be a pretty good guess. But what we have here is mid- to slow-paced atmospheric doom/sludge metal with sections of ambient/drone that holds its own as an exemplary album in this obscure genre.

Opener “Coerced Creation” starts things off with heavy drone/doom that reminds me of SunnO))) & Boris‘s “Etna” from Altar, but it is quickly offset by tortured suicidal vocals, all together sounding very much like Moss. The atmospheric sludge at times calls to mind Abandon‘s In Reality We Suffer in that there is a strong sense of emotions behind the riffs, especially on “Beneath the Black Veil” and the aptly named “Depressor.”

This album will likely linger in obscurity for some time. You probably won’t see it on any year-end lists. Given the nature of this release, I think the band would prefer it that way. But even though it seems gimmicky, it doesn’t make much difference either way because the music here is pure quality. Lovers of everything at the dark end of the sludge/doom spectrum should do whatever they can to listen to this.

[Visit the band's website]

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