Amaethon is the Austin, Texas based solo-outfit by Jake Wayman, who’s part of the current Calcraft line-up as well (amongst some other great names, as former member, like Nahaya, Vesperian Shadow or Wolvenguard). With this new outfit, he did release two albums in the meantime. The debut, Exclusion Zone, was (quasi) totally written, recorded and performed by Jake himself. The mastering, for your information, was done at the Bonespill Recordings studio (by Bryan Eckermann), and part of the vocals were engineered et the Dead Room Studio with guidance by Clifton Miles.
This first album was released about a year ago in an ever-lasting partnership of Symbol Of Domination Prod. and The End Of Time Records (May 19th 2025). It’s a jewel-box compact disc, limited to 500 copies. Little later (July 15th 2025), Dungeon Squid Productions re-issued the material on cassette format, by the way. It does come with rather unusual cover artwork (i.e. the color palette and the drawing style), but it does surely fit to the neo-apocalyptic, psychological and fictional concept. It’s courtesy of Moonroot Art’s Vojtech Doubek.
Exclusion Zone is inspired by the 1972 novel Roadside Picknick (written by the Strugatsky brothers), and Stalker, that legendary motion picture by Tarkovsky from 1979. The album lasts for almost forty-eight minutes and is divided into six coherent chapters, clocking in between about six and a half minutes to nine and a half minutes. It brings a very melodic, technical and timeless form of Black Metal with a lot to experience. A first thing is the structure of the album. Atmospheric parts interfere with modernistic, somewhat Post-oriented ones; up-tempo excerpts come in balance with some decelerated moments, and several speed-up pieces; nostalgic, rhythmic patterns come in balance with explicit straight-forward chapters; eerie riffs and obscure harmonies are interspersed by catchier fragments of contemporary production. Sometimes there’s even a hint of mechanoid extremity, like certain passages in Dark Places To Wander, a track with a rich palette of approaches (Atmospheric / Post and everything in between).
The album is strongly guitar-oriented. The tremolo or main leads sort of carry the whole adventure, injected with sharp solo-work, progressive textures (mind some excerpts in the instrumental masterpiece Red Forest Anomaly, for example) and some dueling riffs. Also the high-pitched, rusty, barb-wired vocals stay strongly at the foreground. But hey, do not underestimate the whole background section, for rhythms and bass guitars, drums / percussions, and the few synths and acoustic strings, are of undeniable importance. Without the tight drum patterns and rumbling beats, the highly supportive six- and four-strings, and all other additions (some fine samples included, like in the aforementioned Red Forest Anomaly), the ‘front office’ (i.e. the main vocals and guitar leads and melodies) wouldn’t be so prominently interesting.
Besides, the album does come with a grandiose production. The sound is powerful, solid, dense, and actually clean too, covering the whole in a modern package. I do like a certain rawness in sound, but then again I do not think it is a necessity when talking about a Post-oriented result. As long as the production isn’t pathetically brisk or sugary, this kind of productional decency is most welcome.
Recommended if you can also appreciate Agalloch, Wolves In The Throne Room, Drudkh, Blood Of Kingu, Winterfylleth, Falls Of Rauros and this kind of limits-surpassing acts…
For the sake of completeness… In the first paragraph, I mentioned two albums under the Amaethon moniker. In early 2026, The Eternal Famine did follow Exclusion Zone, digitally released via Owlripper Recordings, followed by a physical edition via Dungeon Squid Productions and Poisoned Furrows (the latter being the label by Jake himself). This for your important completeness…
https://symbolofdomination.bandcamp.com/album/sodp162-amaethon-exclusion-zone-2025
https://satanath.com/sodp/item/sodp162
https://dungeonsquidproductions.bandcamp.com/album/exclusion-zone
https://poisonedfurrows.bandcamp.com/album/exclusion-zone-2