Sulphur Aeon : “Seven Crowns and Seven Seals”

The Lovecraftian lore and all the sinister forces lurking in its dark corners undoubtedly provoke interesting visions in the artistic world, including music.
There are a number of artists who are inspired by the cosmic horrors created by the American writer and bring the creativity into their own musical reality.

With that said, German black/death metal band Sulphur Aeon, who I bet are well known to most of you, have been devotedly exploring the supernatural horror of the unknown outer space through their weighty tunes for just over a decade.
With their fourth full-length album,”Seven Crowns and Seven Seals”, due for release on October 13th (Friday the 13th) via Ván Records, the masters mark their 13th anniversary. 13/13/13. Excellent frequency for whispers from dead stars and encounters with giant intedimensional  dark lords.

The very title of the album – “Seven Crowns and Seven Seals” is somewhat a reference to the biblical “Revelation of John” and the seven seals from the book, but it is undoubtedly more  about something different here – an apocalyptic experience and the release of unheard cataclysms upon humanity, brought down by monstrous deities and creatures from a world to which our consciousness is still closed. The seven cosmic deities of Lovecraft’s universe pulse in the darkness, being called upon to rise to the surface and destroy the world.
As Lovecraft himself mentioned in his lifetime, “We live on a tranquil isle of ignorance rising in the black ocean of infinity.”
And one look at the amazing cover artwork  by the talented Paolo Girardi is enough to get clarity on the aforementioned and lurking evil, after which the world will become a complete wasteland, sinking under the waters.

The title features seven tracks totaling around 46 minutes, with each song somewhat symbolic of the breaking of a particular Key and the unleashing of incredible powers upon the human species.

Opening the album with melodic guitars, the instrumental of the one-minute opening track “Sombre Tidings” is joined by ambient atmospheres and the brief whispers of vocalist M., which ends with the dramatic phrase “Sie sind hier…” – “They are here”.

After the atmospheric intro, “Hammer from the Howling Void” bursts in –  a song praising the mystical void with no visible horizon, absorbing and destroying everything with its spores. A song summoning Chaos and the majestic Azathoth, reminiscent of a dark spell from the ominous cryptic spaces described in Lovecraft’s work.
In addition to traditional expressiveness and emotionally charged vocals, which they carry with ease in the entire thoughtful concept, in the song we can hear fast drums, synths, cutting guitars of different tonality and a distinct bass that changes its tempo in different sections.

„Thou hast become death, Azathoth.
destroyer of this world and beyond
Chaos! hammer from the howling void“

On the album’s next track, “Usurper of the Earth and Sea,” the stars align and the gates in fron of the Lord of the depths unlock and open wide, allowing him to enter the mortal world. Starting off slow and smooth, with heady whispers inviting the ear, the song gradually builds into M.’s  harsh vocals, as before long his screams are joined by fast drums, the guitars take on a colder sound, and the atmosphere turns into an all-consuming march of greatness of the underwater realms.
The track is including  beautiful guitar solos that come in towards its middle section and accompany the instrumental and the  vocals until a brief moment of slowing down the tempo…followed by the vocalist’s total eruption at the end of the track where again the guitar riffs come in to punctuate the whole darkness.
I like the tempo changes in the songs of  Sulphur Aeon – they definitely give  a more ritualistic and majestic feel to the musical narrative. This, of course, is a trademark of the band and hardly comes as a surprise to anyone.

In the rest of the tracks, the atmosphere follows the same direction, which makes the album an inseparable whole. Each song carries an element from the previous one and vice versa, while each composition incorporates a number of more ear-engaging elements, including more gothic and clean vocal parts, again in the traditional Sulphur Aeon style.

In “Seven Crowns and Seven Seals”, in addition to the classics, you will also hear a beautiful e-bow performance by Michael Zech, which gives a unique atmosphere to the ritual of summoning the Seven, along with a slightly different approach to the writing of the piece, making it even more massive and spectacular sounding.

And the finale of this journey through the Unknown completely captivates with its dedicated shrieks and atmospheric parts in the instrumental. “Beneath the Ziqqurats” rapturously welcomes the power of unleashed evil, welcoming destruction and mayhem.

„Еlder temples, witness of the bleeding desert sky
welcome the darkness that is rising from beneath
to sinister force the ancient gates succumb
the seals are broken, unbound the horrors rise to rule“

“Seven Crowns and Seven Seals” is an album of contrasts, in which we can hear ritualistic parts and intense atmosphere, cold guitars floating in space and playful lead parts, subtle synthesizers and heavy blast beats, monumental weight and aggression, followed by ethereal lightness , with all this symbiosis of moods and musical techniques delivering a hypnotic feeling of weightlessness.

This is without a doubt an album that provokes different pictures in the mind of the listener and especially if you are captivated by Lovecraft’s work, you will find yourself immersed in the imposing and violent reality of interplanetary cosmic horrors with ease.
A classic Sulphur Aeon at its finest, transporting you into the outher spaces,  beyond the walls of sleep and deep into the darkest bowels.

„Glory to the ones who lurk under endless seas of sand
Glory to the entities beneath the ziqqurrats“

You can hear the single  „Arcane Cambrian Sorcery“ below :

Band: Sulphur Aeon
Album: “Seven Crowns and Seven Seals”
Release date: 13.10.2023
Label: Ván Records
Order link: https://bit.ly/3KxckVE.