With their 2004 debut
Song for the Dead King,
Aerium announce the gothic/symphonic/operatic heavy metal movement's inevitable arrival in Russia (from whence some might have expected it to originate in the first place); and deep Russia, at that -- the eastern Ural Mountains town of Miass, to be exact, located in the Chelyabinsk region, near Kazakhstan. Now, with that geography lesson out of the way (and you will be quizzed on this later!), it's unfortunate to report that, given the disappointing quality of the songs herein, it's probably a good thing that the king is already dead. Not to get vicious with
Aerium's very young and precocious ensemble, but
Song for the Dead King is about the blandest, most one-dimensional, and under-produced example of its genre yet; and this being a genre virtually built on the shocking contrasts of its disparate elements.
Aerium fall well short of exploiting these contrasts to their advantage, following the moderately successful title track with a slew of indistinguishable, mid-paced offerings which, for all of their competent musicianship, eventually blend into one another with little edge or excitement to speak of. The drummer occasionally comes close to breaking out, but his cohorts generally seem content to execute their parts with the professionalism and reliable precision of the classically trained musicians they probably are, but hardly the euphoric excitement of the rock stars one presumes they would like to become. And to that end, soprano frontwoman Veronika Sevostjanova is equally at fault, never once wavering from her rich and fluffy, traditional operatic intonation to experiment with alternate vocal styles. Her discipline would have worked just fine in classical circles, but it basically gets trounced by crushing competition in this field that includes the likes of
Nightwish's
Tarja Turunen and
After Forever's Floor Jansen. But enough, already: the bottom line is the members of
Aerium certainly have the chops to succeed in their chosen musical sphere, but it's going to take a little more work. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia