Some Scandinavian frosty tunes are the best antidote for summer's heat. The Finnish melodic death/ doom project BLACK SUN AEON from the landscape of Lahti counts already 2 years of life and "Routa" (meaning "Frost") is its second full length album. It's widely known that Finland has a tradition in the well-played death melodies and the catchy dark atmosphere, fact that proves a whole scene has created, influencing many bands of the same genre all over the world. So, we have to see if BLACK SUN AEON continue the good tradition, putting another one stone in the Finnish melodic death Metal's leviathan.

"Routa" consists of two discs, each one including seven tracks: "Talviaamu" (meaning "Winter Morning") and "Talviyo" (meaning "Winter Night") indicating the cold and dark character of the album. In "Talviaamu" we meet the tough and dark/ death profile of Tuomas Saukkonen (mastermind of the band), who shows all the sides of his vocal abilities, creating the desirable atmosphere he wants to pass through the album. Keyboards and the heavy guitars take the leader part, while the whole atmosphere passes an optimistic mood and the ideal rod to the second disc. In "Talviyo" - that is the most massive and solid part of "Routa" - we have to deal with the absolute dark/ death coldness of the Scandinavian lands and the opening "Funeral Of World" prepares us with the most appropriate way for it. The low tempo riffage, the stifling ambiance and the melancholic bleakness are the main characteristics of "Talviyo", making me found some sonic diamonds like "River" and "The Beast" that carry a part from the earlier AMORPHIS/ SENTENCED glare. It won't be strange if you have the feeling that this has to do with black Metal roots/ influences and that's something that become increasingly without mess up the total listening of "Talviaamu", pointing successfully the differences between day's luminosity and night's thick darkness.

The mixture of the melodic doom, gothic, death and black Metal tunes is quite recognizable in every single part of "Routa" (independently of the 'day/ night' thing) and the serious work that BLACK SUN AEON did before release the album is quite obvious. The only minor thing that I have to mark here is the inevitable flat mood in both two discs that might tire the listener, if some dares to listen to both CDs in a row, reaching the 79 minutes totally. Overall, "Routa" is a nice album depending on what you like in your ears best; stick to the first disc if you like really melodic catchy choruses, listen to the second if you like more blackened doom. It's possible to understand better the BLACK SUN AEON thinking in music though, if you give a shot to their previous album, "Darkness Walks Beside Me". It's all about continuation after all.