After a few years it’s a real pleasure to find Oberon again, who enchanted me in 2014 with his Dream Awakening, an album that marked his return to the scenes after a very long silence. The Norwegian musician is now back after making his old solo project a real band, and the result is a work like Aeon Chaser that if, on the one hand, partly loses the magic that covered the predecessor, on the other hand acquires a thickness more rock, with several digressions in the gothic matrix of the nineties, obviously in a revised version, corrected and enriched by the talent of Bard Titlestad. What follows is always and however a test of sublime level, thanks to a lot of fascinating songs, various and rich of melodic intuitions in the softest moments, involving when the pace takes on more expeditious rhythms. Needless to say, at least for personal taste, the preference goes to songs of crystalline beauty like To Live To Die, Worlds Apart and Lost Souls, in which neo-folk elements are skillfully mixed with songwriting impulses reminiscent of Buckley, going to compose a magnificent picture. What about the beautiful Laniakea, in the smell of progressive with its fluid guitar work, the overwhelming Walk In Twilight, the gothic perfection of The Secret Fire other strengths of an album rich from the musical point of view and as always deep lyrically, as for Bard music has always been also (if not mainly) the vehicle to express their elaborate philosophical beliefs. In the accompanying notes it is stated that Oberon sees art as a shamanic project, but the most surprising thing is that this goal is pursued through a musical form that is anything but difficult or made by endless ritualistic compositions; Bard’s greatness lies in his treatment of topics of great depth, offering them within a musical structure certainly sought after but at the same time within the reach of a wider audience, just thanks to a melodic afflatus that is the backbone of a sound always rich and original.

2016 – Prophecy Productions