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Aetherial is an Australian Death Metal outfit formed in 2013 and The Still Waters of Oblivion is their debut album. The core of the band is made up of vocalist Matthew Sheppard and bassist Cassandra George and their promo material clarifies that in the live setting they employ session musicians but makes no mention of who rounded out the recording line-up for the album or if they handled everything themselves.

The Still Waters of Oblivion is full of Melodic Death Metal characterized by a modern guitar sound punctuated with a few keyboard hints, tempos generally on the faster side and generic songwriting. Sheppard mainly employs a shout that is a one-note, Phil Anselmo-inspired affair and it gets old pretty quick. There are some lower growls on the choruses that mix things up but the shouting dominates. The melodies are fine but non-descript as are the riffs.

There’s some talent here but all the songs sound similar to one another and that means The Still Waters of Oblivion starts to drag after only a few songs. Arch Enemy is probably the closest reference point so if that’s the type of Melodic Death that fills your playlist Aetherial might be work checking out. For most, this stuff is competent but monotonous.