AGATHODAIMON - In Darkness

After 5 years of wait since their last material, Agathodaimon released their sixth album titled In Darkness. You know what they say: “don’t judge a book by the cover”…. I was hoping this would not apply, because the cover caught my eye, it seems Agathodaimon have remained the same visually, very dark.

However, musically things change, as it is known that the band has changed its style repeatedly, going from symphonic black metal to some sort of very weird gothic metal and then became a little dark metal. This album is more of a return to the roots, with a bit of growing up for good measure. It reminds me to some extent of Blacken the Angel, but there are a few songs I wouldn’t define as very inspired.

The song In Darkness starts calmly with acoustic guitar, leading you slowly to the depths of darkness built on the downtuned guitars and aggressive drumming. This is a choir of children of the night calling out to their dark goddess. On the other hand, Favourite Sin failed to catch me with its intro, as it starts with acoustic guitar and clean vocals. Many metal magazines have praised it extensively, but I stand unimpressed, there were loads of similar songs on the previous album.
We slowly sink into deeper water with the next song, Oceans of Black, with strong overtones of doom and melodic black metal, with a black and oppressive atmosphere, with some genius riffs and tranquil but depressive keyboard parts.
My favourite song from this album is undoubtedly Dusk of an Infinite Shade, which was also release on their first demo tape “Carpe Noctem” in 1996. It has been remade, and for the better, since it’s aggressive, dark, but at the same time melodic and soothing, with short calm passages of acoustic guitar.
Somwhere, Somewhen is my second favourite, announced by bell tolls, a perfect combination of crushing distorted guitars and vocals as demonic as they can be.

Overall, the album is pretty good, sombre, demonic, and depressive. Agathodaimon have their own style, a style that would be just perfect if they kept it and stopped trying to copy other bands. So, the 5 years of wait weren’t exactly a waste of time.
 

Abramax Nota: 8.5