Aephanemer
A Dream Of Wilderness

Listening notes

Aephanemer's *A Dream Of Wilderness*, released in 2021 on Napalm Records, arrives on vinyl under catalog number NPR1080VINYL. The French act works across death metal, symphonic metal, and rock, and the record's eleven tracks are spread across two sides in a way that gives the format some structural coherence.

Side A opens with "Land Of Hope" and moves through six tracks total, including "Antigone," "Of Volition," and "Le Radeau De La Méduse," the latter title referencing Théodore Géricault's famous 1818–1819 painting depicting the aftermath of the wreck of the French frigate Méduse. "Roots And Leaves" and "Vague À L'âme" close out the first side, the latter phrase being a French expression for a diffuse, melancholic longing.

Side B carries five tracks, beginning with "Strider" and "Panta Rhei," the second title drawing on the ancient Greek phrase associated with Heraclitus and the idea that everything is in constant flux. The title track appears at position B3, placing it roughly two-thirds of the way through the record rather than at its conclusion. That structural choice means the album closes on two distinctive entries: "Old French Song (Tchaikovsky Cover)" at B4, a cover of a piece from Tchaikovsky's *Album for the Young*, and "Le Radeau De La Méduse (French Version)" at B5, a French-language version of the track that appeared earlier on Side A.

The presence of both a Tchaikovsky arrangement and a bilingual treatment of the same composition gives the vinyl sequence a degree of variety in its final stretch. Napalm Records, an Austrian label with an established catalog in heavy music, handled the release. Track durations are not confirmed in available documentation and are omitted here accordingly.