Aura Noir-Aura Noir Album Review

Norwegian black/thrash metal band from Oslo

To change our style or not to change it…this is the question. This is the best way to describe the new album of Aura Noir. For a band that has been around since 1993, this may be an important question. The metal fans have a habit of over-reacting over this question as well.  The album is pretty similar with the older ones. It’s been six years since the last studio album release, and with this new album I am neither disappointed, neither impressed.  A band can change or not change their style over the years as long as what they bring to the table is still something to rock your socks off.

With the first song of the album Dark Lung of the Storm you already know that you are listering to Aura Noir, the song has a sick combination of drums and guitar that keeps coming and going over the 3:26 minutes, suited with a splash of blasfemic lyrics that makes the songs powerful until the end. The first song is really good, specially since the  following seven make it a bit to easy to guess what bands influences them. Grave Dweller and Hell’s Lost Chamber are quite similar, almost like they were first made like one song that got split. Funny, how they are placed one after the other on the album, this makes it even easier to notice the similarities between the 2 songs.

The Obscuration it is way too long song filled with guitar riffs, the riffs repeat making the song sound a bit to repetitive, and being followed by a powerful song like Demonic flow makes you wonder if it better to listen to the songs in a different order. Demonic flow does let the way to the next song Shades Ablaze-this one feels more thrash oriented than the other songs, that still try to mix black and thrash. The song is the strongest point of the album, and only with 3 more song to come. The last 3 song skips easily past you since they fail to impress as much as Demonic Flow. The ending song Outro reminds more of a sound check, more like a band trying to see if everything is in order than an actual song. It’s made to end the album but after it you are still expecting for something else to start.

The album is enjoyable but really disappointing when taking into consideration past albums.  The songs seam to not be organized properly based on their complexity or vibe, and, when listening to an album from the first song to the last, can spoil the quality of the experience.

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