OCTOPLOID – Beyond The Aeons

RELEASE YEAR: 2024

BAND URL: https://facebook.com/octoploidmusic/

It has become almost a custom among heavy metal (and rock) artists that members of well-established and successful bands either make solo albums or join other bands while remaining active in their main abode. It used to be (80s and 90s), due to time and space constraints (both now completely overcome by the rapid advance of technology) that members had to quit one band in order to join another, and, while that, of course, still happens, nowadays it’s usually due to irreconcilable personal or creative differences and not because of one’s inability to juggle many balls at once. Thus, Marcus Vanhala is as much a guitarist for Omnium Gatherum (as a founder) as for Insomnium (since 2011), Vicente Payá the same member of Unbounded Terror as of Golgotha (to name but a few) or Sepultura founder and former member, Max Cavalera, currently confidently straddling Soulfly, Killer Be Killed and Go Ahead And Die. The voracious appetite of musicians for creating more music and more variety thereof is practically unlimited and for proof you just have to look at Rogga Johansson’s current projects (courtesy of Encyclopedia Metallum) which run for 6 lines for current endeavors and additional 4 for all he’s ever been part of. I, for one, rejoice, getting more great music from the same creators.

Such is the case with Finnish Helsinki progressive folk death metal solo project of Amorphis and Barren Earth bassist Olli-Pekka Laine (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Octoploid, and their phenomenal debut album, Beyond The Aeons²⁰²⁴, released last July 5th via Reigning Phoenix Music, an album very much akin to what Amorphis and Barren Earth are doing yet still already with its distinct originality shining through tracks such as the perfect first single “Human Amoral”, flawless “The Hallowed Flame”, “Concealed Serenity” or “A Dusk Of Vex (Radio edit)”, the last 2 no small thanks to Swallow The Sun’s vocalist extraordinaire’s, Mikko Kotamäki’s (who’s also Octoploid’s live vocalist) vocal grace, but, really, only one track is not ideal, the opener, “The Dawns In Nothingness” (which Kotamäki also handles) and not because it’s not excellent (it is) but because it is comparatively below the flawless standard of the rest.

To achieve his goal of releasing one of the best progressive melodeath albums in history (mission accomplished), Laine invited Peter Salonen (guitars), Kim Tapani Rantala (keyboards) and Mikko Pietinen (drums, percussion) as well as a small squad of guests (especially since Laine does not lead sing on any track) such as the aforementioned Kotamäki (tracks 1,6-7), Amorphis guitarist Tomi Koivusaari (lead vocals in track 2), Amorphis, Sinistra and Hallatar vocalist Tomi Joutsen (vocals in track 3), Rapture clean vocalist Petri Eskelinen (lead vocals in track 4), Barren Earth vocalist Jón Aldará (lead vocals in track 8), Samuli Leminen (lead guitar in tracks 4 and 5), former Amorphis keyboardist and former Barren Earth keyboardist and backing vocalist, Kasper Fredrik Mårtenso (keyboards in tracks 4,5, 7-8), Ilkka Laaksomaa (lead guitars in track 8) and Jani “Janitor Mustasch” “Joanitor Lottoner” Muurinen (lead vocals in track 2), so, for all intents and purposes, we may de facto speak of Octoploid being a supergroup of Amorphis and Barren Earth former and current members of whom each brings his own personal influences to the table, including, rather than limited to their respective base band.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the aforementioned “Human Amoral”, such a well-chosen single representation of Beyond The Aeons as two, seemingly irreconcilable words meet for procreative purposes: raw yet melodic death metal and atmospheric, electronics effect-riddled Pink Floyd straight from Darkside Of The Moon¹⁹⁷³, especially such pieces as “On The Run” or “Time”. I can’t be sure but it seems as though Octoploid specifically chose “Human Amoral” to clue us into the reality of each track, while sharing a common theme in sound, being truly different. No sooner does this Pink Floydian song end that “Shattered Wings” ushers in Fish Marillionic or even The Doorsy keys passages that sometimes serve as main melody and sometimes seamlessly cooperate with death metal guitar leads. Consider also how the more or less Amorphic first half of the album is edged off by or sequed into the instrumental title track at the conclusion of which Mr. Kotamäki takes over with authority that gives “The Hallowed Flame” and “Concealed Serenity” the air of melodeathly Swallow The Sun with none of the doom (something he actually already serves in the opener), the choruses downright happy as a pig in its own excrement juxtaposed with deathly verses, and how the man even influences the closing “A Dusk Of Vex (Radio edit)” to sound as heavy and similar to “These Hours Of Despair” despite being entirely absent from the song itself so that even Jón Aldará sounds deceptively like Kotamäki, so if you want to call Beyond Aeons a 4 track Swallow The Sun album I won’t fight you, though nor will I care because it’s that good.

May we observe and benefit from more and more artistic ambitions from the band members we love, admire and appreciate and may they all be as versatile and genre breaking as Octoploid’s debut, but even more so, may this not be a one time deal.