Éons

LONG ASS REVIEW INCOMING WHOOPS
My reasoning for rating this album this way is a little complicated. I mean fuck, it's a 2+ hour triple album with each disc somewhat standing on its own thematically. This was gonna be hard to review no matter what. To tackle this behemoth of a record, I'm going to give a short review for each disc individually, with a different score for each one, then sum up my thoughts on the album as a whole at the end.

The The Earth is the most immediate disc in this album. While it definitely makes use of its space and atmosphere, with heavy drone influences throughout, it has a lot of extremely visceral moments. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes, it's an apocalyptic doomy thrill-ride that never lets you go.
9/10

To The Moon definitely starts off strong, but I have a much harder time defining its sound. The first three songs on this disc definitely get the job done, although they all pretty much feel like they could've fit easily onto the first disc. The Vajrabhairava suite gets off to a great start too, making you feel like it's really gonna build into something great. Then The Great Wars of Quaternary Era Against Ego just doesn't really deliver on the promise of the first part of the suite. I mean, it gets a nice groove going, but it goes on for longer than it really needs to, and the part that's clearly supposed to be the big payoff doesn't really do much other than turn up the volume on what the band had already been doing for the first 10 minutes of the song. Iadanamada! is the closest this album ever gets to being boring, with chanted repeated vocal melodies that sound really out of place. Oi Sonuf Vaoresaji! is a fine track on its own, but it brings nothing new to the table. If anything, it just repeats musical ideas that were done better on other tracks. It's really disappointing too, considering how great this disc seemed like it was going to be. The end result is a disc that is still impressive, but feels underdeveloped, especially when sandwiched between the other two discs.
7/10

Thankfully, To The Sun picks the album up in a spectacular way. On here, they essentially take the intensity of To The Earth and blend it with some of the more meditative song structures of To The Moon, all while incorporating even more drone metal influences, and delving into a little bit of Hindustani music. It's the longest disc on the album, and it makes full use of its length. The songs are drawn out to crushing lengths, padded out with some of the band's darkest drone passages yet, and some melodic and rhythmic improvisation. It's a disc that finally lives up to the earth-shattering promise of the album's concept, and manages to combine the sounds of drone, doom, jazz, and Hindustani music in a way I've never heard before. Not to mention, the experience of listening to these four tracks is downright terrifying at points. It is music for the end of the universe that beats you over the head just as much as it lulls you into its chaos.
10/10

So yeah, if these discs were released separately as independent albums, To The Sun would easily be my favorite album of this year (and the past couple years if I'm being honest), To The Earth would be fantastic for what it is but not necessarily ground-breaking, and To The Moon would just be an admirable but inconsistent effort. However, these discs were not released independently. The band clearly wants people to view the three of them together as one album, so that's how I have to review it. In that case, this is still a listening experience I would highly, HIGHLY recommend. It's an unforgettable album that does lull a bit in the middle, but ends even stronger than it began. Don't let the length prevent you from giving this a shot, especially considering each disc is fairly short.

Favorite tracks: Daiitoku-Myōō no Ōdaiko; Nganga; Lamasthu; Ptah Sokar Osiris; Magická Džungľa; Enūma Eliš; Zâr; Vajrabhairava: The Summoning; Eôs; Heka Hou Sia; Heliozoapolis; Khonsou Sokaris

Least favorites: Iadanamada!; Oi Sonuf Vaoresaji!