Illyrian – Aegis Review

Vocalists may huff, drummers and bassists may puff, but it’s undeniable the power of the guitars over Metal music. The guitar, I mean, is the instrument that gives Metal music its personallity. It’s impossible to make Metal music without guitars. The louder, the better; the dirtier, the better; the more flamboyant, the better. I could write the mores all day long. Show of hands who’s never was attracted to an ablum or a song just because of the guitar riffings or the guitar solos or even the guitar sounds. Me? Many times, and this is one of them with this marvelous Illyrian “Aegis” an album where the guitars shine so bright that the light can bothers me. It’s a matter of speaking, if you know what I mean.

Many may say “Aegis” is just one more Extreme Metal album with a huge Melodic Death Metal punch. However, I’ve gotta tell you, under the millions of layers of a well planned cacophony there are zillions of guitars and astonishing guitar sounds hidden by a pungent melody. Well, regarding to other features as, for instance, the vocals they sound pretty shrieking as if they were from a Black Metal band and this strikes the fan. The contrast of layers and sound consistency astonish the fan as sometimes they soun a bit out of hand or not from the same song. It’s such a strange feeling this one, but the thing is that sometimes as in “Dark” vocals seems not to belong to the same song. I guess this is also a feature that will really attract the fan because metallers also appreciate this kind of contrast.

I really don’t like to be redundant but I stress my fan to pay close attention to the guitars of the album. They are really amazing and worth it. Funny thing is that all the fuzz is done by only one guitarist the axeman Scott Onofrychuk whose solid work I have to praise here. Another fun fact about the band is that they were knwon as Hellborn Death Engines until 2015. From where I’m standing Illyrian sounds much better. By the tittles of the songs I guess Illyrian have entered in a minimalistic era.

My fan knows that I almost don’t pay attention to lyrics and song tittles. I’m a picky guy as you all know. However, I paid lots of attention to the four tittles of “Aegis” like they are sending a message to the fan that buys the album. In the order we have “Age of Ancients,” “Fire,” “Age of Chaos” and “Dark.” To me they are telling something. I just don’t know exactly what, but they are.

P.S.: When I look it up for the YouTube video I noticed “Ancients” is “Age of Ancients” and “Chaos” is “Age of Chaos.” Okay, now I got it. Well, my fan knows I sometimes write some things stupid. I can’t help it.

Illyrian “Aegis” was self-released on October 15.

Track Listing:

  1. Age of Ancients
  2. Fire
  3. Age of Chaos
  4. Dark

Watch “Age of Ancients” official video here: