CoC : Aesma Daeva - The Eros of Frigid Beauty : Review

Aesma Daeva - _The Eros of Frigid Beauty_
(Root of All Evil, 2002)
by: Aaron McKay (2 out of 10)

Besides the well-worded title, this re-recorded effort comes across as drunk on its own sense of transgenre bullshit, much like Dudley Moore in Arthur -- and please know I hate to disgrace that movie with this comparison. Aesma Daeva fans, mostly related to the band I would assume, will say that I am not able to hear the beauty of this hybrid zoological garden soundscape. Rubbish! The problem is I hear it TOO WELL! In order to become aware of the menagerie at hand, the listener must be at least modestly interested in understanding where the band is going with their music; I am not. The female vocals tend to nurture drowsiness expedited along by the classical guitar style of AD's main-brain, Jon Prassas. Violence is most certainly the last thing you think of when Aesma Daeva comes to mind, but to illustrate a point: even all the talent in the entire world spread out like grey matter on a wall after a shotgun blast to the head couldn't make this disjointed effort any more interesting. _The Eros of Frigid Beauty_ takes the "artsy" approach to metal about -three- steps too far. To understand what I mean, spin _Stormblast_ from the beginning, take out all the black metal and its implications -- what you have left is what you can expect from AD. To go one more and play upon the already weak "AD" reference, the only wish I have for this particular disc is that it would have been left in the "BC" period! Not a funny crack? Well, this disc isn't either -- it's pitiful.

(article published 16/3/2003)