Aeon Nexus: Examining The Power of Post-Traumatic Growth through Positive Disintegration

Don't let the big words scare you, we can reassure all will be explained as we dive deep into the arching psychological themes and recording processes of Brisbane progressive metal act Aeon Nexus's debut EP Positive Disintegration - out now.

Since formation, the four-piece have honed in on their craft (and extracurricular activities) to produce their first taste of music in the hopes of tantalising prospective listeners with their unique blend of melodic metal with progressive metalcore undertones - inspired by some of the heavy music scene's most notable names.

Vocalist Sam Wolstenholme leads the charge with insights into their new release, taking a look at the inspiration behind the title, turning poetry into prog-metal and the influences that helped shape the overall sound (and feel) of the EP.

The Story Behind Positive Disintegration

Positive Disintegration is the synthesis of everything I’ve experienced over the last few years in what turned out to be a significant period of growth that was sometimes painful, but ultimately very empowering. It’s about becoming your true self after the breakdown of everything you previously believed to be true about who you are and where you were headed in life.

The EP takes its name from a psychological theory developed in the 1960s by psychiatrist Kazimierz Dąbrowski, which is based on the core idea that psychological discomfort/distress and anxiety can be catalysts for meaningful growth, i.e. post-traumatic growth. Dąbrowski conceptualised this as five stages of personal development from harnessing growth potential arising from a crisis or trauma. The first stage is very ego-centric, where the person is only focusing on basic needs fulfilment, but then through a process of disintegration, they learn to be more authentic, goal-oriented and driven by empathy, looking outwards, until they reach the final stage, which is the ideal self-actualised person they were always meant to be.

I’m a total psychology nerd, and I became fascinated with this theory when I was going through a rough time in my life a few years ago. Since then, I feel like my own journey has been one of positive disintegration to become more authentic in how I show up in the world.

I started writing poetry before I formed Aeon Nexus, and as we were writing this EP, I realised a lot of those themes were popping up in my poetry. I realised that this was what I wanted to express through this EP, thematically, so I reworked some of my poems to form the lyrical basis for the EP. We settled on five songs to mirror the 5 stages of disintegration - the EP starts from a place of dependency and victimhood, with the character arc slowly becoming stronger through taking accountability, gaining agency, and discovering their true self.

The Recording Process

Musically, it was such a fun, collaborative process - the four of us brought our varying influences to the melting pot, everything from post-hardcore to technical death metal, and that helped us shape a unique sound. Some of my favourite moments on the EP are thanks to ingenious riff ideas brought forward by Travis, our bassist, or really innovative drum fills brought by Rohan. I got to flex my piano skills but also experiment with layering synths for this record, which was super fun for me.

Then it was mostly self-recorded, apart from drums at Verity Music - shoutout to Harry, what a legend - and we then had the tracks mixed and mastered by Chris Themelco of Monolith Studios. I’ve worked with Chris numerous times before on previous Seraphic releases, and so I was excited to bring something different to him to see what magic he could work with it. He made it such a smooth, enjoyable process, and his attention to detail was amazing in the live editing sessions he invited us to sit in and contribute to. We’re so stoked with the result.

The Musical Inspirations

Sam

For me personally, Spiritbox has been my absolute favourite band for some time now. Courtney LaPlante is who actually inspired me to finally stop dragging my heels and learn how to scream so I could form this project. Eternal Blue was a game changer and was highly influential in how I approached writing for this EP. Vocally, what I really wanted to nail was the seamless transition between clean and harsh vocals that Courtney is so flawlessly adept at, so tracks like 'Hurt You' and 'Circle With Me' definitely informed how I approached writing vocals for Aeon Nexus. Some of the incredibly technical riffage you see on that album too, like in 'Silk In The Strings' for example, I wanted our guitar work to follow that example, because we also really wanted to lean into the more progressive side of our sound.

I would say I also took great influence from my symphonic metal roots as well of course, as there’s a fair amount of Euro metal flair in my melodies on this EP, particularly in the anthemic choruses. Delain has always been a go-to for me, with their lush layers of orchestrations, driving riffs and lightning guitar solos, but they also have this fantastically dramatic, pop-driven edge that brings earworm after earworm. Their previous vocalist Charlotte Wessels’ vocal performance on 'Burning Bridges' from their album Apocalypse & Chill remains, to this day, one of my favourite vocal performances on any symphonic metal song - her power and versatility blows me away every time.

This is definitely what I wanted to emulate for the clean singing/melodic aspect of our songwriting.

Rohan

Sleep Token is the band that has really influenced how I’ve written for this project. I love incorporating chops usually played by jazz funk and gospel players in a metal context. ii is a big influence for me and I was fortunate enough to have some lessons with him. As much as I come up with my own fill and groove ideas, I use a lot of similar sticking patterns that I love.

“Now that’s very Sleep Token.” - Mitch Fogarty from Alpha Wolf upon hearing 'The Choice'’s chorus fills.

Trav

While writing for this EP I did a lot of genre listening and tried to filter it through the influence of my session player heroes like Marcus Miller who step between genres easily while still retaining their own voice. I focused on keeping the bass interesting without pulling focus from the vocal arrangements.

Shannon

I took a huge amount of influence from Dream Theater’s John Petrucci for this EP. Listening to a DT album is like a masterclass on how to tastefully arpeggiate extended chord voicings and articulated riffing throughout complex and full arrangements. After much time I can hear the subconscious influence on songs like 'Weightless' and 'Mercury'.

Now you've got the insights, get the new tunes into your ears and listen from a different perspective.

Aeon Nexus is Sam Wolstenholme (vocals), Rohan Parker (drums), Shannon Loch (guitar) and Travis Hagstrom (bass).

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Stream Positive Disintegration EP here
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Aeon Nexus - Positive Disintegration EP tracklisting

1. Twin Hurricanes
2. Weightless
3. Mercury
4. Petrichor
5. The Choice