After an ep and two split albums, Aphonic Threnody come to the debut full length not betraying the expectations that the work in cohabitation with Ennui first, and then with Frowning, had undoubtedly created. On that occasion I had benevolently chastised the combo of Riccardo Veronese saying that, by putting together the tracks present in the two splits, it would have come out an excellent album instead of dispersing such potential in different releases. I haven’t changed my mind about that, but luckily the English musician has put on the plate another hour of funeral death doom of great thickness, showing a very fertile compositional vein. Veronese, who we can also find with other two excellent bands such as Gallow God and Dea Marica, in Aphonic Threnody avails himself of the collaboration of our two fellow countrymen, the Sardinian Roberto M. on vocals (Dea Marica, Arcana Coelestia, Urna) and Marco Z. (Arcana Coelestia, Urna), the Belgian Kostas P. on keyboards (Pantheist, Clouds) who, with this record, concluded his collaboration with the band, and the Hungarian Abel L. on cello. The use of line-ups of different nationalities seems to be a constant for the doom bands based in London, just think of Eye Of Solitude: it’s probably a case, since the compositional weight often falls on a single component, but it would seem that these authentic cultural mixes are able to spark the creativity of all the musicians involved. When Death Comes is, in fact, a magnificent work, which represents exactly what a fan of this genre would always want to listen to: poignant guitar lines, enveloping keyboards, capable of evoking solemn and dramatic atmospheres at the same time, a growl of rare effectiveness, a dynamic rhythmic base despite the trend is inevitably compassed, and the cello that, at various times gives the songs a further brushstroke of dark and melancholic tones. Undoubtedly the first half hour of the album is amazing for the beauty of the melodic lines proposed by Riccardo, able to plunge the listener in a muffled feeling of inescapable pain, making the long Death Obsession end up being an ideal extension brought to the extreme consequences of the already beautiful opening track The Ghost’s Song. Dementia is certainly not a negligible track, and it’s perhaps the most varied one in the tracklist, but it partially suffers from its location immediately after these two painful sound monoliths, compared to which it’s less evocative. The Children’s Sleep brings the sound coordinates towards uncommon emotional peaks, thanks to the contribution of illustrious guests such as his majesty Greg Chandler (Esoteric) on guitar and David Unsaved (Ennui) on backing vocals. Two minutes of delicate piano sketches introduce the new heartbreaking exhibition of anguish and suffering represented by Our Way To The Ground, another song, the last one, which gives us a band capable of placing at the first shot to the noble floors of the funeral melodic death doom, thus becoming a new reference point for the worshipers of Saturnus, Officium Triste and, of course, My Dying Bride.

2014 – Doomentia Records