French project THE AGE OF INNOCENCE is, or perhaps rather was, a two man venture with one vocalist and one multi-instrumentalist combining their talents. To my knowledge they only released one album, “3992 Sophya”, which was released through the then Musea Records controlled label Thundering Records back in 2000.
I suspect that today many would describe The Age of Innocence as a symphonic black metal band. If the expression was in use back when this production was recorded I really do not know, nor of it fits the current definition of that subgenre of a subgenre of music. The key elements makes this a good description anyhow, even if it may or may not fit the defined sub-sub-genre.
The premise throughout basically goes as follows: A firm rhythm foundation is established, supplemented by bass guitar lines. Dark toned, aggressive guitar riffs are employed as walls of sounds, either as slower paced, massive reverberating riffs or in slow to mid-paced riff cascades. Fairly commonly a delicate piano motif is added to the proceedings, and then at last a layered, classical symphony inspired keyboard arrangement, mostly sticking to the upper parts of the tonal register, is placed on top as a sharp contrast that also combines into a majestic overall arrangement. Some brief and a few slightly longer passages of a gentler nature are give room throughout for variation, also adding a further emphasis on contrasts. At last black metal inspired croaks and clean, melodic lead vocals are both used, supplemented with a voice that have more of a talking role. This should result in material of a fairly compelling nature by default, as the emphasis on contrasts on multiple levels does tend to easily fascinate and captivate. In this case the automatic compelling qualities of this structural and compositional approach are overshadowed by other matters, and unfortunately of the less than positive variety.
The drums sound programmed, sterile and fairly repetitive in a less than innovative manner, and the bass guitar also has a distinct artificial sound to it. The black metal-tinged dark vocal croaking doesn’t quite sound convincing either, while the clean vocals are passable at best. Mix and production leaves a lot to be desired as well, my general impression when listening to this album is that it sounds like music played by someone in the next room, a very closed in sound of you like. The different instruments also have a tendency to drown each other out, at times doing so with the vocals as well, and apart from the lighter sounds on the tonal range the sound is a muddy, lumpy porridge. To my ears this is demo quality in the production department, and a low cost one at that.
I can hear what this duo is trying to achieve, I think, and through the layers of sounds of a less than appealing overall quality I hear arrangement and motifs that, given a better production, probably would have been fairly compelling. But as it is, this album will have a severely limited appeal due to the mix and production weaknesses alone.
If I should summarize The Age of Innocence’s sole production, it would be that this is a lo-fi, demo quality production of music that most likely should be sorted under the symphonic black metal description somewhere. The weakness of the mix and production combined with the rather artificial sounding bass and drums will make this disc one that will interest a very select few only, at least that is my conclusion, but those with a deep, deep interest in music of this kind may find this album worth investigating a bit.
My rating: 37/100
