Ixion Is Doomed To the Future on "L’Adieu aux Etoiles" (Album Premiere)
Like a soundtrack to an offworld burial, the French doom duo Ixion‘s upcoming album L’Adieu aux Etoiles blends the mournful cadence and timbre of funeral doom with a sci-fi thrill, building suspense and atmosphere through starry synthesizers and looming pads. Heavy, oppressing, airy, and wondrous: it’s a paradox that can only exist beyond the speed of light. Strap in and stream the whole album now:
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Bright synthesizers and electronic ambience might feel contradictory to the nature of slow and plodding doom, but the cybernetic backbone on these chunky riffs holds a futuristic menace and cinematic flair that wholeheartedly sells the combination. That’s perhaps most evident on “The Great Achievement,” where snakelike riffs writhe alongside sinister digital accompaniment: space-age organ and chimes that toll the bitter end of some distant, dying star. Songs like the closing track “Farewell” take advantage of the more wistful side of this combination’s potential, developing vast scapes of hopeful, swelling spectacle only to split them apart with galactically-sized riffs.
Ixion, now on their fourth full-length album, understands what makes this kind of music tick: as guitar, vocals, and synthesizers take turns leading the procession, the melodies they develop weave a course between hostility, melancholy, and longing that feels just right for the theme of the album (whose name translates to something like “A Farewell to Stars”). If ever there was a record to play as you stood at the helm of a starship fleeing a doomed solar system, this would be it.
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L’Adieu aux Etoiles releases October 9th, 2020 via Finisterian Dead End.
Regarding “L’Adieu aux Etoiles,” founder Julian Prat says:
“I started to compose this album driven by a desire to get back to funeral doom ambiences, and soon felt the new material was in fact at the very heart of our universe. Thus, it became the idea: to release a condensed album, focused on our core musical identity. It deserved a careful production, and finally, the songs really sound as we had imagined! Not forgetting the amazing artworks and photos which perfectly illustrate the music and concept. All this makes the album so special for us.”
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