Sirius was a short lived ('98-'02) black metal band from Portugal who released two albums during their short but intriguing run. After two demos in '98 the band signed with Samoth's (Emperor, Zyklon) Nocturnal Art's Productions and unleashed their debut, 'Aeons of Magick' in 2000. I remember when this album initially came out I had (for whatever reason) and enormous struggle actually finding a copy on the internet, but I eventually tracked one down two years later at the 2002 Milwaukee Metalfest.
Musically Sirius was comparable to bands like Limbonic Art and Obsidian Gate with an additional bit of influence drawn from the first two Emperor records as well. Therefore were dealing with symphonic black metal here that places the largest emphasis on the keyboard orchestrations while the guitar and bass are nearly absent from the recording, while the drums relentlessly blast away and the vocalist screams in a hellish fury as well as occasional using an epic narrative voice over the chaos. With the guitars/bass being reduced to merely just a distant ambiance some might think the music would be utterly boring, but it's the orchestral synths that really make Sirius so stunning. The synths hold a very epic and ethereal, cosmic and brooding characteristic to them, which at least in my opinion makes the music very gripping when mixed with the raging drum work and black metal vocals.
As far as actual highlights are concerned I honestly wouldn't hesitate to say that most if not all of the songs stand out of significantly, but, 'Travellers of the Stellar Ocean' has always stuck among the others and it shows the Emperor influences I mentioned earlier. I'm also quite fond of the title track since it's a nearly ten minute epic, which shows off everything that made Sirius so good and, 'Beyond the Scarlet Horizon' is an exceptional pure orchestral synth piece that ends this journey quite well.
After this album the band released, 'Spectral Transition - Dimension Sirius' in '01, which I never got my hands on, but I hear it was less symphonic and also used a death metal voice instead. Some time after the recording some of the members moved to Norway and Lars Sorensen (Red Harvest) and Cato Bekkevold (Enslaved) joined, but nothing was ever created together. A few years later drummer Daniel Cardoso formed a band with Garm from Ulver under the name Head Control System.
It's been ten years since it's initial release and I still feel this is one of the finest entries ever in the symphonic black metal sub-genre. Aeons of Magick is surely not an album to miss, especially if you have any love for the bands mentioned above or just the genre in general. Absolutely stunning work is to be found within this one.
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