Aesma Daeva - The Eros of Frigid Beauty
Aesma Daeva - CD Review
The Eros of Frigid Beauty
The Eros of Frigid Beauty
CD Info
Aesma Daeva have done something very different on The Eros Of Frigid Beauty, but that shouldn't be surprising since their last album, Here Lies One Whose Name Was Written In Water, was hardly likely to find it's way into the album charts.
However, this is the intention since Aesma's founding member, John Prassas, holds contempt for the mainstream, indeed, Eros was originally promoted under the slogan "Guaranteed No Hit Potential".
Eros is very different from Aesma's last offering. Whilst Here Lies One relied on an almost dark, haunting and churchlike feel, Eros has that feel of the Middle Ages to it. This is not only shown in the lyrics and artwork, but the instrumentation is very classical, utilizing harpsichords, trumpets and classical guitars mixed in with the heaviness of the drums and guitars.
2002
Root Of All Evil
7 Tracks
English lyrics
English lyrics
Aesma Daeva have done something very different on The Eros Of Frigid Beauty, but that shouldn't be surprising since their last album, Here Lies One Whose Name Was Written In Water, was hardly likely to find it's way into the album charts.
However, this is the intention since Aesma's founding member, John Prassas, holds contempt for the mainstream, indeed, Eros was originally promoted under the slogan "Guaranteed No Hit Potential".
Eros is very different from Aesma's last offering. Whilst Here Lies One relied on an almost dark, haunting and churchlike feel, Eros has that feel of the Middle Ages to it. This is not only shown in the lyrics and artwork, but the instrumentation is very classical, utilizing harpsichords, trumpets and classical guitars mixed in with the heaviness of the drums and guitars.
The album begins with Lysander, an unusual six-minute offering that brings in the trumpets and the heavy distortion - a rare combination. This song is probably the finest on the album along with the title track, which is an unusual number to say the least - seventeen and a half minutes long, seventeen of which are without vocals, and the moment when the distortion kicks in actually had me scared the first couple of times. And that's the thing with this album - it is so unusual and so unpredictable. Do not expect any of the usual verse/chorus/verse structure either - I couldn't begin to explain how to map the geography of the songs - it's very difficult indeed.
As with Here Lies One the lyrics here are affectionately borrowed from another poet, this album's featured victim being John Dowland, a 16th Century poet and musician who should have, if he didn't, gained a notoriety for bleak and depressing lyrics, many of which are included on Eros: - "The walls marble black which moistened still shall weep from me, they still shall weep forever in darkness to bar all cheerful light" and "bedded to my woes and bedded, bedded to my tomb. Oh let me living die" etc etc. This guy really must have been going through some proper shit. In spite of that, this is not as morbid as some of the stuff chosen for Here Lies One. One more thing to note is that we have different vocalists on Eros, in fact we have three. Rebecca Cords seems to have been replaced by Melissa Ferlaak, Adena Brumer and Sara Williamson, though I couldn't tell you which was which on any of the tracks.
The Eros Of Frigid Beauty is so different from Here Lies One that if I had been given them both on unmarked CDs I would have thought they were by different bands, but I shouldn't be so naïve as to think that that's not just a little intentional. What Aesma Daeva are clearly all about are diversity and innovation within heavy music. It's not classical, it's not metal, it's not Gothic, it's the perfect hybrid of all of these, but, strange though the fusion sounds, Aesma Daeva have the imagination and ability to make it work.
