Persefone - Aathma (2017)^{Release ID: 7339}

Persefone's Aathma was an album that I think I checked out from a random shuffle through some metal playlist on Spotify or something. And holy crap was I blown away.

I have always made it clear that in order for extreme metal to resonate with me that it has to go far beyond simply chugging riffs, blast beats and guttural vocals. There needs to be something tangible that I can take from it and make me want to return. Usually that is melodic songwriting. Well imagine my surprise when the final track is a twenty minute long epic that owes itself to Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and the recurring main theme throughout. And that persists through tracks such as "Living Waves", "Prison Skin" and "Stillness Is Timeless". I really enjoyed how the band were able to craft these tracks together around one or two very simple melodic ideas and transform them into as many ways as they possibly could. This is a truly mesmerizing album for fans of progressive metal who are looking for a gateway into the extreme.

Somewhere in Southern Europe lies a small land between borders, a great distance away from wherever you live but smaller than your country's average state... Andorra! And over there is one group who has taken both eastern philosophy and western-cultural music in a great attempt to let people about Andorra's existence, and that is... melo-deathly progressive metal band Persefone! Since their rise to prominence in the mid-2000s, they've phased through different trends while their sound stays put. Their influences pack quite a punch with the hard Gojira, the technical Dream Theater, and the eclectic Threshold, all in unique otherworldly lyrics. Aathma continues their journey!

The band's spiritual philosophy continues from their previous album as they maintain their atmosphere-flavored extreme impact that has kinda put them in rivalry against the Australian Ne Obliviscaris (friendly rivals, of course, Ne Obliviscaris' Tim Charles would perform guest vocals and violin in a special single later), yet there's the slight addition of traditional prog ala Dream Theater. Persefone's previous two albums established their motive of songs ranging one-minute interludes to 10-minute epic. For this album though, they've spiced it up by including a 4-part 20-minute epic that we'll talk about later. The esoteric amount of subjects is in strong symmetry with the clean and unclean vocals, plus a small bit of robotic vocals from a certain Cynic vocalist. Besides that, Dream Theater's John Petrucci would be proud of the technical guitar twists here.

In "An Infinitesimal Spark", the first part of the intro, digital narration by said Cynic vocalist, Paul Masvidal makes the intro one of the most amazing ever, for ideal mood. The second part of the intro, "One of Many" is where the progressive riffing kicks off, and we're not in the heavier songs yet! The first actual song starts when you've confined yourself in a state of unawareness within the dark "Prison Skin" that you refuse to be held captive in. You start to struggle to find your way through without any distracting assaults holding you back, before getting to positive power... The pummeling "Spirals Within Thy Being" encourages you to battle through harsh vocals and rhythms.

The climatic break "Cosmic Walkers" offers you to rest after that battle before you continue your journey. "No Faced Mindless" hits you with The Faceless-like progressive death metal mixed with the clean beauty of trad-prog metal bands like Dream Theater. Paul Masvidal returns once more with his cyber chanting and additional guitar in "Living Waves", another 5-minute technical part of the journey.

The spacey soundscape continues in one more instrumental, "Vacuum". The nearly 10-minute "Stillness is Timeless" continues the fight between the two split personalities that are the clean vocals and the harsh vocals. There's more impressive soloing there. To end this towering album is the 20-minute closing title epic, split into 4 parts. "Universal Oneness" jazzes up the heavy guitar groove. "Spiritual Bliss" starts as a slow ballad with narration by Merethe Soltvedt (best known from a few songs by Two Steps From Hell) before more dynamic riffs and shredding solos come in. "One with the Light" hits heavier with guitars by Øystein Landsverk who recently left Leprous. And finally, "Many of One" ends it all as a closing ballad with Soltvedt's serene singing.

Wow, what a vast daunting task Persefone has taken into making Aathma, packing loads of great content into an incredible mind-trip, all in conceptual flow. While they've done this approach since their 2009 album Shin-Ken, the greatness has never hugely worn off. Aathma marks probably the band's most ambitious album yet, though it probably wouldn't be a long-run classic as much as Spiritual Migration with some hooks being overly symmetrical. Nonetheless, any fan of Persefone should get Aathma, and probably start with an earlier album if they're newcomers. It has been Persefone's quest to expand their horizons, and they have a promising path to please the Earth!

Favorites: "Spirals Within Thy Being", "No Faced Mindless", "Living Waves", "Stillness is Timeless", "Aathma" (all 4 parts)