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Lunar Aurora > Ars Moriendi > Reviews
Lunar Aurora - Ars Moriendi

The Art of Dying - 88%

PhantomMullet, December 27th, 2011

Many people consider Ars Moriendi Lunar Aurora's best release...It's not the most farfetched opinion because the album does serve as a bridge between their more symphonic, Emperor - influenced work and their most recent heavier and atmospheric albums. It does indeed take from both worlds, containing synthesizer driven atmospheres and a stronge sense of heaviness. As such, you get a solid black metal release featuring a sound that's crunchy, thick, strong, but still fuzzy. The production is much better compared to previous albums, but it's not completely clear. No problem - it doesn't need to be.

In terms of general themes, the ideas of space and winter that they've used in previous albums seem to be gone. Instead, the lyrics seem to focus on more abstract things or perhaps certain emotions based on my limited German skills. There are still prevelant themes of dying, decay, and ghostly matters, but overall the mood of the album is a bit darker. You know this right away when you hear the short introduction track that is only filled with ominous organs. The outro merely consists of what appear to tranquil wind chimes. I guess this symbolizes the idea that something has indeed died.

I think the main point to make with this album is that all the tracks are really good, but only three or four of them are absolutely excellent. "Flammen Der Sehnsucht", "Deamontreiber", and "Kaeltetod" alone really make this album worth getting. The riffs in "Flammen Der Sehnsucht" are amazing! It's not so much the intricate tremolo picking, but how the production syncs well with the synths in the background. The vocals come off as really harsh, setting a strong display of powerful, but mystical agony. There's an incredibly sinister atmosphere to be found here. The song has an overall structured style, but it's varied enough so that it never goes flat. This track really reminds me of some of the older Norwegian black metal bands for creating that mystical atmosphere of grimness amongst the fullmoon in the deepest depths of the night.

I really don't have anything bad to say about Ars Moriendi. Sure, some songs are better than others, but they're all worth listening to and for different reasons. If Ars Moriendi really means "The Art of Dying," Lunar Aurora have done really well here in making that theme come to life (or death?) with the atmosphere they created. If you've never heard Lunar Aurora before, definitely start here and if you have heard this band but not the album, what are you waiting for? This is a spiritual journey you don't want to miss.

An Isolated Voyage - 86%

Thamuz, September 13th, 2005

Deep down in the subterranean depths of every individual’s mind, there is a small twitching, a slight pulling at all of our convictions and thoughts. For some this is more than a slight pull, more of a fierce tugging realisation. This realisation, some may call it a fear, is that we’re alone, each for his own, in this perplexing complexity of the universe. This will forever haunt us to the grave, sometimes it will serve as a warning sign and at other times it will be a liability depending on who we are. Each and every man will have his share of isolation, varying dramatically in length at one time of his life or another.

Lunar Aurora approach the subject of isolation with admirable integrity, providing a shameless exposition based around the realisation that it is an unavoidable consequence for some in a deluded technocratic age where people resemble the very machines that they so unknowingly worship. The aesthetic implemented to habituate this, certainly not an easy task, revolves around the focus on one or two motifs that serve as the representation of the macrocosm of these sullen compositions. This provides the perfect environment for the implantation of many microcosmic themes that are far subtler in nature, the building blocks of a desolate reality. From this, evolves a perception of the world that seems so sullen, hopeless and even abject in its despondency, yet it holds an air of profound beauty and flawless magnificence far below its obvious surface.

The sonic manifestation of this dark thesis comes in the form of symphonic Black Metal of the highest order. There is a deft precision in the way that the searching, even free roaming - as vast ranges of hills do in the countryside - nature of the keys intermingles with the dreary mist created by the tremolo riffs. The production is suitably fuzzy, with a preference drawn towards the keyboards, but every now and then a majestic riff will rise out of this foggy suspense, revealing itself confidentially above the surreal pulsating clamour of the relentless percussion. This is sheer beauty personified. At times the misanthropic, highly unsocialised nature of the music has a resemblance to the sprawling sadness and despair of Mutiilation. But, this is just a mere aside, as there are many influences here, but it sounds not like any of them in particular. To say that this is, for example, a rehash of German traditional music would be another inconsistency, but it shares the cultured charm of the region’s previous splendours, especially in the keyboard work. There is also the introduction of the raw, abrasive Bathory/Darkthrone minimalist riffing in some passages, which only helps to procure abstractions to a world of alienation, that is free of human irrelevancies such as sin, where nature is a source of enrichment and wealth, not a person’s own enemy. Again, it should be stressed that this is in a league of its own, not just a summation of preceding works.

This, of course, is the tragic tale of an intelligent, joyous, and wonderful soul who embarks on a miserable journey through anguish and despair, the horror and torment that such a soul faces as they find that they cannot understand the quest of modern people for meaningless trivialities, vacuous pleasures and tin-plated, self-embellishing dreams. The soul faces a stultifying realisation that there is no other to share its dreams of strolling through lush pastures on a sun-drenched afternoon, or even drinking the evanescence of beautiful music as it melts into the air, ready to be consumed by like-minded artistic connoisseurs. It is here that we find that the present time is no such time for those who seek the grandest manifestation of marvellous life and those who wish to roam outside of the spiritless prison of modernity. But, instead of retreating inside a reclusive shell and practicing what can only be equated to mere fatalism, we can see the seeds being sown for something far greater and cosmically blessed. Whether or not this sees the light of day or fades into incomprehensible nothingness is of no consequence, for there is always a hope of creating a better day, this is our guiding star. Such works of art, as “Ars Moriendi” define the scope of the future, it is up to others to enforce a better way of living from these teachings.