Band: Black Sun Aeon
Title: Routa
Label: Cyclone Empire
Distribution: Sure Shot Worx
Release date: 02/04/2010
Review: DCD

Black Sun Aeon are a one-man project, formed in 2008 by Tuomas Saukkonen, the mastermind behind Before The Dawn, yet he’s also known from his involvement with bands and projects as Teargod, Rajavyöhyke, Dawn Of Solace, Sinamore, Jumalhämärä, Bonegrinder (did split, unfortunately), or The Final Harvest. One year ago, Cyclone Empire released the debut album, Darkness Walks Beside Me (review posted on 20/04/2009), which was simply a superb debut album. Back then, Tuomas worked with some guest musicians to perfectionise that album, and that’s the case too right now, with this second album.

This time, Tuomas was helped out by two guest vocalists: Sinamore colleague Mikko Heikkilä on clean vocals (he contributed on the debut too, by the way), and Lunar Path’s Janica Lönn, who did the female vocals. Tuomas himself recorded all instruments (electric and acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, drums), as well as the main vocals, and he recorded this stuff at OneManArmy Studio with Aleksanteri Kuosa, while the mix has been done by Juho Räihä at Soundspiral Studios. The writing process for this album was so productive that it became a double-album. Routa, which means ‘ground frost’, is a concept about ‘winter’ in all its aspects: the season, yet also human’s mental state about it. …not that unusual in Finland, knowing that it is one of the coldest countries on Mother Earth. And because last winter was one of the hardest ones ever, and probably the coldest one in more than forty years, it led to inspiration. Yes, a double release isn’t that bizarre anymore, is it?!

Both discs have a total duration of almost eighty minutes, and they do have a sub-title, dividing the concept into two parts. Disc one is called Talviaamu, which means ‘winter morning’, and it is the most melancholic part, representing the ‘beautiful’-emotional side of winter. Talviaamu is a majestic soundtrack of snowy landscapes, frozen forests and bitter cold, translated into a dark, mesmerizing atmosphere. These melodic tracks vary in emotional approach, with a massive yet slow tempo, and a desperate spirituality. The second disc, with sub-title Talviyö (‘winter night’), has another approach: much grimmer, more obscure, more gloomy. It stands for the cruel side of winter, defined through rawer hymns with a rougher sound. These tracks are not of the melancholic kind, yet breathe a misty sphere of total darkness and apocalyptic oppression. More grunts and less clean voices, a heavier, more pounding rhythm section, and suffocating riffs are the main musical ingredients to make this second part much more colossal than the first disc. Will it reveal a nuclear winter? Yet in spite of the different approach between the two discs, there is a clear cohesion between them. And the core behind this wonderful concept shows the most overwhelming totality.

Conclusion: I was very charmed by the debut album, but this recording easily exceeds almost every single thing that has been produced in Finland since this country got crowded by snowmen.

92/100

Ivan Tibos.