Aexylium pull out all the stops in their latest release filled with heavy riffs, pounding rhythms, beautiful and guttural vocals, traditional instruments, epic choirs and a majestic, epic feel to the songs on The Fifth Season.

The folk metal band Aexylium hails from Varese, Italy and dates back to 2014. From the early days of the band they have played many well-known festivals across Europe and were even chosen as finalists in the European Celtic Contest. During these festivals, the band has shared the stages with the likes of Elvenking, Wind Rose, Nervosa, Furor Gallico, Temperance and more. The band’s first self-produced ep, The Blind Crow, was released in 2016 and the first full length from the band, Tales from this Land, was released in 2018, which was well received by the listening public. As a further honor, in 2020 the band was chosen by the city of Milan to perform at the Castello Sforzesco. The Fifth Season was recorded at Twilight Studio by Davide Tavecchia and refers to a potential future where humans have depleted earth’s resources causing a neat total extinction, with lyrics inspired by Norse Mythology.

As one might expect from a folk metal album, The Fifth Season starts out with a bit of a prelude in the opening of “The Bridge” and then launches full on into a heavy fast guitar riff punctuated by pounding drums. Guttural vocals are the first thing to greet the listener as the song progresses and the traditional instruments are layered in perfectly to accent the guitars and drums and lend an epic feel to the song. Granted the guttural vocals may not be for everyone and I much prefer the more beautiful, transcendent female vocals elsewhere on the album but I get why they are here. The choir is expertly inserted and the variety of backing instruments really bring the song to life. The band has previously covered the Game of Thrones theme song and one can almost hear something similar here in the music.

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