If you wanted a drop kick to a nun's face on Halloween, this would have been it. INVOKER's second album has a lot of what you'd expect from any Black/Death hybrid, but with a few choice surprises. Opening with the instrumental "Hunger" sets up a heroic feeling and introduces you to how the first part of the album is going to sound before title track "Aeon" comes in with standard tremolo picked melodies, but becomes easily repetitive until the guitar's change it up towards the end of the song, not enough to save the tune from the bland dynamics. "Secret Of The Seed" dose little more to impress until the bridge.

However this is where the album gets seriously interesting. "Lawless Hunter" is fantastic, opening with dissonant melodies before ripping into high speed riffing, with much more dynamic vocals and the sense that Tino Schuman is off his leash behind the drums. It continues with somber melodies countering the intense vocals before going off a bit 'Sabbath-y' without sounding cliché. Looking forward to the next track "The Wolves' Chant" you'd be surprised to find a piano driven instrumental with classical violin lines. At 2:12 long it's a good, long palate cleanser before "In The Womb of Arrogance"...

I'm actually not sure how to describe it, other than for you to go and listen to it somewhere and enjoy it. "Engulfed For Millions Of Years" produces some serious groove, live I'd expect the crowd to be jumping like storm driven waves, allowing the shift to the tonally rich mid-section to shine through. It sounds Ecclesiastical, and I can't tell if it's some form of guitar trickery or a synth, but it works really well with the demonic vocals. "Across The Abyss" follows up the last two songs brilliantly before "Wood of Nothingness" closes the album. At 8:07 minutes long it's the longest track, and at the most risk of becoming monotonous. However great guitar and drumming skills allow it to build interest throughout the song, giving it a real progressive edge as it weaves seamlessly through all the different sections, referencing all the good parts of what you've just heard before closing with a creeping piano line.

Looking at the lyrics separately (to my ears only "Across The Abyss" has understandable vocals throughout) you'll find themes of birth, demons, death and gore crafted into what I'd expect a possessed poet to write. In the most bleakest and dark of terms it's pretty, full of imagery and symbolism. For example "Secret Of The Seed" while musically not very challenging, lyrically it's deep, touching on religious democracy in the face of organized religion via an anti-Christ. Interpret as you will that's some seriously heavy stuff to release on Halloween. Well played.

In short it may start quite weak, and come across as two dimensional but the individual songs that make up the second half are spot on. Where this album dose really shine is the lyrics, which would be quite cool as a book using the medieval artwork used for the album. Enjoy it.