A quick perusal of Verona, Italy-based post-metal sextet WOWS’ Facebook pages reveals a surprising list of influences – from Neurosis, Tool and Cult Of Luna to the more surprising Massive Attack and Radiohead.
But, despite encouraging adjectives about a “unique and huge sound… giving life and form to a majestic monster (or divine creature)” and the entire eight-track, one-hour opus being recorded live, direct to tape in the studio, the brooding melancholia and linear progression of Aion frequently drifts into dawdling passages of textural and atmospheric filler.
Not so much the equivalent of wandering into the kitchen and forgetting why you went in there, it’s more like wandering into the kitchen and slipping into a coma.
The likes of Nemesi and Riwka drift at tidal pace through moving and hideously crushing Cult Of Neurosis-isms, wrapped in the circular builds perfected by Tool, but fail to reach the crescendos they seem to promise.
