PERSEFONE: Aathma (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

How long the road to recognition can be! Especially when the country of origin is so small that many of us are unable to locate it on a map. Persefone knows something about that. And yet, the band from the Principality of Andorra, formed in 2001, delivers its fifth album "Aathma", four years after the ambitious "Spiritual Migration", whose musical and melodic qualities, well above the average of progressive metal productions, were not enough to get the band out of an incomprehensible confidentiality. Many musicians would have thrown in the towel. Not the Catalans, who redoubled their efforts to give body and soul to this new opus. A crowdfunding campaign led with mastery allowed the Andorran sextet to hire the services of Jens Bogren, producer of Opeth, Katatonia, Devin Townsend and many others.

And it is an understatement to say that the effort, the self-sacrifice and the talent pay off. "Aathma" is another step forward in the band's progression and stands head and shoulders above its predecessors. Persefone's music, at the border of progressive metal and melodic death metal, keeps its identity forged by a formidable technique but gains in fluidity and emotion.

From the beginning of the album with the title 'Prison Skin' preceded by the two instrumentals 'An Infinitesimal Spark' and 'One Of Many', the listener knows that he will not come out unscathed from the listening of 'Aathma', whose richness and intensity are really stunning. Aerial keyboards, piano arpeggios, metal riffs, alternating growl and clean vocals, rhythmic breaks, progressive instrumental breaks, guitar solos, complex and subtle arrangements, Persefone's music is a melodic and emotional whirlwind created by the impeccable technique of each musician and by a proven sense of composition.

The great strength of the album is to moments of calm in the middle of the storm. Thus the progressive metal tracks ('No Faced Mindless', 'Living Waves' where Paul Masvidal of Cynic makes an appearance), thrash djent ('Spiral Within Thy Being') and death metal ('Stillness is Timeless') are punctuated by soaring and atmospheric instrumental pieces ('Cosmic Walkers', 'Vacuum') which reveal all the lyricism and the symphonic subtlety of the opus.

Based on texts questioning the relationship of the individual to existence, to spirituality and to the soul as a transcendental link between man and the universe, the album closes with a Dantesque musical piece of twenty minutes, 'Aathma', divided into four parts, where each musician puts his talent at the service of a refined music, a perfect balance between brutality and finesse, until the grandiose finale sublimated by a feminine vocals with an almost unreal beauty.

In its review of "Core", Persefone's very first album, the editorial staff of Music Waves qualified the opus as "a miraculous link capable of reconciling progressive and raging death metal fans". With "Aathma", the miracle continues and the album will please Dream Theater fans as much as Opeth or Ne Obliviscaris admirers. Persefone has the right to the international recognition it deserves. Rare are the melodeath bands able to produce such inspired and mastered music. - Official website

PERSEFONE

AATHMA

VICISOLUM PRODUCTIONS

PROGRESSIVE METAL