Today, Neuropa Records announces August 2nd as the international release date for ADON’s highly anticipated debut album, Adon, on CD and vinyl formats.
Formed in 2019, ADON are a black / death metal duo hailing from America, helmed by lifelong friends guitarist Nath and vocalist Æthelwulf II. They found solid footing in late 2020 with the addition of session drummer James Stewart (Decapitated, ex-Vader). Their first public release was the Arkane EP in October of that year. A period of silence lasting four years would follow as ADON worked on their full-length debut. The “Axiom” digital single was revealed at the very beginning of 2024, teasing the dark delights of that debut album.
At last, ADON’s first full-length arrived in the form of Adon, elegantly self-titled. Its initial release was exclusively through The Metalhead Box subscription service, but so impressed with its cold-steel majesty, Neuropa immediately sought to release the record worldwide on both CD and vinyl, with expanded deluxe layout. And for good reason: ADON’s opening salvo is a heat-seeking missile and massive wall of gleaming chrome alike, an example of “blackened death metal” that honors the full potential of such an appellation, and very simply a very superlative display of songwriting acumen and pummeling intensity.
An exploration into dark fantasy, a true story of repeating history – ADON characterize their main motives thusly, and so does Adon bring them to burned-black life. ADON examine the fragility of existence through story and violent legend, and supposes what happens when our world is ended. Illustrating that is a record that comprises six songs in 49 minutes that lay forth a stark, sometimes-sensual landscape of cutting clarity and rusted-razor violence. Its unique structure as an album – two distinct halves, which start with two conventional-length songs segueing into two respective titans, the nearly 17-minute “Adon” and the 11-minute closer “Æon,” which is to say nothing of every track beginning with the letter A – regulates and exacerbates the sturm und drang of their equally graceful and muscular execution, where quite-often-godly solos wind in and out of their slipstreaming surge. That latter aspect heightens the overall classiness of Adon, an all-too-rare accomplishment among today’s black / death scene where “good production” is often a slippery slope to sterility. Instead, ADON show themselves as astute craftsmen, able to put their considerable chops in service of the song, and evince a cold / hard / dead texture that feels palpably post-modern despite their authentically classic foundation.
Aesthetic signposts are there, to be sure – prime Necrophobic, Lord Belial, and Naglfar to Thorns’ lone album, post-Rebel Extravaganza Satyricon, and the Norwegian Zykon – but boundless in inspiration and bringing a distinctly American air to proceedings, ADON are undoubtedly on their way to conquering the underground with Adon. What could’ve been one of the “best-kept secrets” is now being released in a worldwide edition: immerse thyself in its alluring “Æther”!
In the meantime, hear Adon in its entirety
HERE at ADON's Bandcamp. Preorder info can be found
HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for ADON's Adon
1. Ascension [6:09]
2. Æther [5:27]
3. Adon [16:44]
4. Azimuth [5:19]
5. Axiom [3:48]
6. Æon [11:04]
