Artist Profile #5
Solitude Aeturnus
Country of origin: United States
Genres: Epic doom metal, Doom metal, Heavy metal
Years active: 1987-current
Current members: John Perez (guitars), Robert Lowe (lead vocals),Steven Moseley (guitars), James Martin (bass), Steve Nichols (drums and percussion)
Number of albums: 6
Number of concerts attended: 0
Notable cameos on artist’s records: None
Solitude Aeturnus is a band that I was referred to by an online friend somewhere in the neighborhood of 2002ville. What I particularly enjoy about this band is their use of clean vocals, tuned down guitars, and general epic scope. Solitude Aeturnus play a subgenre of metal called epic doom metal which was made famous by Candlemass (who later accepted Robert Lowe as their lead singer for six years). They have not released any albums since 2006 and their album before that was in 1998. It is not known whether more music is planned.
“Into the Depths of Sorrow” is a name that lets you know their shit is going to be sad AF (that means “as fuck”, I’m trying the new lingo the kids are using). Some of the music in this album is a little bit more on the traditional heavy metal side as their doom side was still being distinguished and developed. The song “Opaque Divinity” does a good job of offering a very fast tempo of drums while retaining that slow, ebbing feeling of doom.
“Beyond the Crimson” is their followup album, released in 1992. There are certainly more sad songs on the album and that utter feeling of despair is a theme that keeps recurring throughout their discography. “Beneath the Fading Sun” is probably my favorite song on this album.
In 1994, “Through the Darkest Hour” was released. This album is more of a traditional heavy metal and traditional doom metal style, though epic doom is exceptionally prevalent in certain songs like “Haunting the Obscure” (below) as well as “The 8th Day: Mourning”. This is probably my favorite of the first three albums.
In 1996, “Downfall” was released. I think out of all of their albums this one is my least favorite. I still enjoy it quite a bit but the other ones are far stronger in my opinion. “Chapel of Burning” is an awesome song and you should definitely crank it up.
1998 produced one of my favorite albums of all time. “Adagio” is a straight up masterpiece. I would easily mention this as a pinnacle of epic doom and showcase this as an example to others for what the subgenre is like. “Days of Prayer”, “Personal God”, and “Lament” are some of my favorite songs of all time.
2006 was the last we really heard of Solitude Aeturnus. “Alone” was put out into the world and much of it was very good. The first two songs are very strong openers and provide an atmosphere that sets the tone for the rest of the album. “Scent of Death” and “Waiting for the Light” are two long and doomy songs that have a lot of power behind them.
And that concludes Solitude Aeturnus. Coming up we have… Ne Obliviscaris/Black Crown Initiate/Starkill concert, a new Atmosphere album, some more artist profiles, as well as albums from Opeth, Epica, and The Agonist in September.
See you soon.
-Ryan