Artist: Solution .45
Title: For Aeons Past
Type: Album
Label: AFM Records

Solution 45 sounds like a heavy duty cleaning product, but in fact is the name of a Swedish Melodic Death Metal band. The first thing which struck me when I heard it was how it sounds uncannily like Scar Symmetry in its high melody rating, dark tones and the vocal style. I subsequently learnt that the lead singer is in fact Christian Älvestam, once of Scar Symmetry. Here he sounds more like Gerry Rafferty than I remember. The clean voice / growl combination is there but the vocals are mostly cleaner and the album is unquestionably melodic with lashings of brutality, so in spite of the band’s protestations, there is a similarity in sound and style to Scar Symmetry.

“For Aeons Past” thrives on the yin and yang of the rough and the smooth, the dark and the light, and the melodic and the aggressive. The opener “The Close Beyond” is fast and furious, swirling rhythmically and melodically to a background of heaviness. The clean vocals are played off against the growls. We’re going to get used to this. “Gravitational Lensing” is stronger on the harmonies. It’s all well constructed as Swedish metal of this kind tends to be. It moves along nicely. The supplementary flavouring is in the vocal skill. There’s a catchy chorus line, with growls to complement the purity. Meanwhile a classic wall of sound rumbles on in the background, there are guitar solos and the breaks are well orchestrated to take us into the next phase. “Through Night – Kingdomed Gates” was a bit aimless, but largely over the album the shifting formula works like a well-oiled machine. I liked “Leathean Tears” and “Bladed Vaults” for the expressive clean vocals. “Leathean Tears” is more emotive than we’re used to, but the riffs still maintain authority. Light melodic touches contrast on “Bladed Vaults” with the dark, heavy rhythms. The riff is typical Melo-death. The growls and clean vocals continue to interlink. “Wirethrone” is yet another track of contrast. It’s like a conversation. It starts in darkness, lightens up, features punishing growls and is at the same time sinister, light and technical. “On Embered Fields Adust” is faster but the formula is the same. From a heavy sub-structure it goes off almost progressively into a colourful tangent, working back from heaviness into its natural place. My personal favourite was “Into Shadow”. It has a marching quality which this style lends itself to. It’s sung with intent. There’s plenty of power and atmosphere. It ranges from slow to punishing. Again there’s a good mix of sounds. “Clandestinity Now” is an interesting finale. 16 minutes in length, I wasn’t sure to start with if it hung together as we’d become accustomed to a certain formula by this stage. Yes, the clean voice and growls are there, the drum taps out, the melody is ubiquitous but then we’re led into a passage of mystery and intrigue. This track allows itself time to develop. It becomes technical, acoustic and dark, mixing it up briefly with a faint cyber rhythm. It doesn’t deviate so much as to be unrecognisable but this is by far the most interesting and bold track of this album.

In terms of taking Swedish Melodic Death Metal forward, I’m not sure how much progress has been made here, but there are slight hints of something different towards the end. Solution .45 stick to a style and do it very well. In particular they know how to work the contrasts, the light and the dark. I liked ”For Aeons Past”, and it’s a good example of the genre, but it doesn’t have the scope or originality for me to become obsessed with it.

http://www.myspace.com/solution45
http://www.afm-records.de

Andrew Doherty

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