Releasedate: 01.06.2024
Aum Zorion plays instrumental post-metal. That means dreamy riffs, droning, dragging guitar parts, and tracks that seem to consist of endless variations on the same riff. It’s the perfect music to get lost in, to close your eyes and drift away in a lucid dream. Hints of black- and progressive influences jolt you back to reality.
Aum Zorion
Aum Zorion is best enjoyed as a whole, with all the tracks forming one big story. With each track over 7 minutes, you know you’re in for drawn-out riffs and droney beats. The self-titled album starts with the track Hamburg, with the slow intro a perfect opener to this album. The dreamy parts don’t last though; it gets pretty heavy later on in the track. The track ends in an epic crescendo.
Animism picks up where Hamburg left off, with more heaviness and tempo. The tempo change after the first riff feels a bit disjointed to me, however. The second part of the track has some doom-inspired, droney riffs. The third part to the track goes on with a similar riff, but in a ¾th beat, changing the feel and building intensity again. And while this works really well as an instrumental track, I can hear the vocal melodies in my head and I wonder what it would sound like with a good vocalist. At the end of the track, we get a groovy riff, driven by the drums. The track again ends in an epic crescendo.
Zerura
Zerura starts of with a middle-eastern inspired riff and some samples. The main melody is one of the better ones on the album. The moment the drums kick in is quite unexpected, but don’t be fooled, this isn’t heavier than anything else on the album. Well, until you get to the end of the track, really. There are some pretty groovy parts leading up to it, but there is definitely some violence in this track.
Hauer starts with an almost alien guitar sound, bringing back the late 90’s vibe. The song starts off quieter than the rest of the tracks, feeling even more like a ballad. No need for vocals on this track, the guitar tells the story.
The album ends with Geoid. The guitarist’ pedalboard is filled with weird guitar effects it seems, since we start with yet another completely different guitar sound. More doom with this track again. It takes over 11 minutes, so that figures. Not my favorite track, because Doom really isn’t my thing. Too much drone, and even though there are some nice parts, it doesn’t move me as much as the previous tracks did.
Final Thoughts
Aum Zorion plays the type of music that I can listen to all day. It works as background music to drone out my thoughts. At the same time, it’s the type of music you listen to with your eyes closed, feeling all the feels. I got emotional during their live performance in de Flux, Zaandam, and I stil get emotional listening to the album. As we finished this review, we learned that Aum Zorion has parted ways with their bass player. If you dig this type of music and think you’re up for the task, reach out to the band and fill the void. We would love to see this band on stage again.
Tracklisting
Hamburg
Animism
Zerura
Hauer
Geoid