80%
Aeveris—White Elephant (2022)
Details
Released on Saturday 29 October 2022.
For fans of Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, At The Gates, Trivium, God Forbid
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Band
- Louis Soenens—Vocals
- Jeffrey Behiels—Guitars
- Dennis Wyffels—Guitars
- Pieter Nyckees—Bass
- Louis Van der Linden—Drums
Tracks
- Scepter
- White elephant
- Stillborn
- The great demise
- Four
- Shapeless
- Made of guilt
- Voiceless are the people
- Segregating the wicked
- Pointless agenda
Review
White Elephant (2022) is the debut album from Belgian five-piece Aeveris (Latin for ‘Ever since’).
Formed in 2021, the band consists of members of Fields of Troy, Thorium, Lethal Injury, Always Fallen and Horizons who joined forces and combined melodic riffing, technical drumbeats and diverse singing techniques to create something pounding and heavy, yet catchy from the first spin. Influenced by bands like Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, At The Gates and Trivium!
It’s extraordinary that God Forbid is missing from that prestigious list of influences. It took me about three or four listens to suddenly realise that this album reminds me almost entirely of God Forbid! Which is not necessarily a bad thing—I do love a God Forbid album, particularly the later material—and given that their last album was released over a decade ago, there is a large God Forbid-shaped hole in the metal landscape right now … or at least, there would be had God Forbid themselves not reformed last year.
I really want this album to be more than: they sound like God Forbid.
But at the end of this crazy day in the middle of this crazy week, I’m sorry to say, it’s all that I’ve got right now.
Conclusion
Anyway, in this album there is an energy, an urgency and a hunger in this collection of ten tracks from these five men from Bruges. The riffs are tight, the melodies are pleasing. This is an album that gets my head nodding and interrupts me at what I’m doing (including writing this review) to enjoy the galloping, battering fury of one track or another. I could definitely see myself putting this album on to listen for pleasure.
Review score: 80%
Video
Disclosure
MDPR contacted me inviting me to preview Aeveris’s latest album, thank you. I have no connections to either MDPR or Aeveris. I’m not being paid to review this. But I did get a free digital copy of the album to review which is pretty cool. Many thanks to Zach from MDPR, and to Aeveris for continuing to create fresh, exciting new music.