Review by Saxy S for Persefone - Aathma (2017)

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.