Ah, yes, this is the perfect arrival to celebrate the most beautiful time of the year, music that is soul-connected to the season: The Autumn, with its fog-shrouded mornings, the fruit-laden and spicy air, the stormily whirling and beautifully colored leave and the grey and rainy misery of dying beauty…
And so is The Constant, an interplay of dark and brutally piling guitar walls, fragile melody lines and emotionally beautiful moments, a hardly to bear melancholy and a haunting and gentle singing.
The Constant is no metal record. It is a Post Rock album with leanings towards the old Montreal school, best heard in the instrumental The Bleeder. There are Trip Rock influences to sense out, one might know from newer The Gathering and newer Anathema, added by a typical Scandinavian melancholia, in this case a Swedish one a lá Katatonia. That all might not sound much innovative and groundbreaking, but it is composed in such a distinct and moving way, it is so hauntingly beautiful.
The Constant kicks off with A Slow Moving Storm and will captivate and mesmerize the listener from the first tone on. Much more it is The Black Heart that will burn and cut itself. Following Assassination ceases a bit but gets outweigh by already mentioned instrumental and the last both tracks, whereas it is You Really Gave It All, Didn't You? that pulls all strings of heartbreaking sadness, desperation and all kind of emotions.
AORIA is the brainchild of Erik Nilsson (A Swarm Of The Sun) and Robin Bergh (October Tide), added by Niklas Sandin (Katatonia), a band long time sunken in oblivion like the sleeping beauty it is musically, now awaken with a kiss to finally release the debut. As one might have noticed, I am blown. Too bad that The Constant is such a short record. I think one or two more songs would not have done any harm. Just nagging. A wonderful gem of music The Constant is!