It feels like every single time I come across any sort of black/punk, blackened punk, or punk-infused black metal (or whatever anyone fucking calls it), I need more! It’s never just a situation where I get a taste and then I’m satisfied for a little while because it always comes in waves for me like it’s a drug that I can never get enough of, and right when I felt the most desperate to go digging for something to sink my teeth into, Avern cross my radar to slap their debut onto my place for a listen that is no less than electrifying to listen to!
Don’t let me lead you astray from what this album really brings to the table, though, since it’s much more than a mix of black metal and punk no matter how good they pull off that concoction. Throughout the six tracks of “Witch’s Eyes”, Avern masterfully brings together a solid layer of death metal nastiness right out of the old school with a tantalizing injection of catchy as all hell rock that makes every song here intoxicating with riffs abound that never once let up as Avern bring it all into one pot beautifully. This is very much an album that wouldn’t stop for the very end of the world because of how defiant the very tone of the overall sound is with the powerful melodic factor permeating every note that we’re treated to for “Witch’s Eyes” as this band never once lets up the ferocity, melody, or the quality that ensures this whole work is something that demands to be listened to. Many other works of this vein sound like they were made in a basement without a true guiding hand to make everything sound as good as it could, but that couldn’t be any further from the reality here as Avern does a fantastic job of bringing the quality of everything down to the very production to an absolute maximum such that there’s virtually no chance that the listening will walk away from “Witch’s Eyes” without feeling like they’ve heard something utterly tremendous. For, truly, there’s no other way to describe this work.
It would be so easy for any band to just throw some punk or black metal flavors on top of the other and call it a good enough work to only throw it at our faces telling us to listen to it, but Avern actively goes out of their way here to make a fantastically layered piece that continuously delivers on a grand scale. Everything about “Witch’s Eyes” is done so magnificently such that I wouldn’t dare change a thing about this magnificent piece, and if this is just the start of what Avern can bring to the table then I can’t help but be extremely excited for what’s to come!
LISTEN to “Witch’s Eyes” on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Avern on Facebook here.
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