Hades Rise

Aura Noir - isn't that the band where the members look ugly even when they smile because their gap-toothed teeth are crooked to top it all off? Not to mention that when they call it smiling, their whole face contorts into a grimace? Well, their music certainly suggests that, and the 2008 album is no exception. The defenders of horridness Apollyon and Aggressor present ten pieces that have absolutely nothing to do with the beautiful things in life. Their black thrash sounds less angry than that of Condor and comparable fellows. Their piss-off attitude shows itself less in hateful outbursts, but in the nearly disinterested presentation of emphatically casual, routinely performed pieces of medium tempo. With this approach the band dances on the knife's edge, because if the riffs, which are essential in this sound picture, don't sit perfectly, everything remains rather unspectacular. All those who have heard "Gaping Grave Awaits" know what I'm talking about. But there are also pieces like "Unleash the Demon". A minimalist riff carries the piece together with the driving rhythm and an eerie guitar in the middle part safely to the finish, not to mention the surprisingly catchy chorus.

The production stands shoulder to shoulder with the music. It is dirty without denying the professional level of the protagonists. It offers neither a high level of clarity nor technical details in abundance. Instead, it comes across as compact and muscular even without highly styled technology. The always nasty, slightly hoarse vocals and the puristic instrumentation are also in good proportion to one another and do not crowd each other out. In this respect, it's a bit of a shame that the band's compositional class only partially flashes here and a track like "Shadows of Death" remains relatively ineffective despite a good start.

Perhaps the duo themselves noticed during the recordings that they still have some room for improvement. In any case, the two worshippers of the unclean try to regain ground at the end of the track list. "The Stalker", the final song of the disc, is driven by a restless riff, the speed picks up and the two-word chorus, as primitive as it is short, immediately sticks in the ear. But also "Iron Night / Torment Storm" leaves the previously chosen paths and focuses more on speed - and as you might expect from a track with a double name, it has the most surprising break of the whole album up its sleeve. The rapid guitar lines here captivate with the somnambulist certainty of a sleepwalker on the roof gable, so that the long instrumental parts give the song a special charm. In between the two aforementioned tracks, there is still the rumbling "South American Death", which, however, doesn't seem to be a homage to the South American extreme metal scene. In any case, Aura Noir sound here as Aura Noir always sound: poisonous, devious and dirty. Anyway. The main thing is that they try not to smile.

Aura Noir is one of a few bands active today that I will rush to the local record store with any degree of enthusiasm to pick up their latest offering (Keeping in mind they DO have the benefit of decent distribution which cannot be said for most of the truly noteworthy acts percolating in metal's black bowels today). I was only slightly less-than enthralled when I heard the sample tracks on Peaceville's mini-site in promotion of the album but I liked what I heard well enough to spur me to seek more. In hind-sight, I chalk up my lukewarm first impressions to the unworthiness of the average laptop's built in speakers to accommodate high degrees of sonic ferocity.


So, the release date came and that familiar giddy anticipatory feeling my less-jaded metal-brethren know so well crept over me. It sets in later now that my mind is clouded with the soul-flatteningly banal aspects of 'normal-ass person life' as opposed to the several days of anticipation prior when I was an angsty (I'm taking the word back) but essentially dutiless youth. Without further fanciful banter (hopefully, if not, oops), here are my impressions upon popping this thoroughly vicious fucker in my trucks not-bitterly-enviable-but-slightly-above-average sound system...


"Oh, okay... mhmm... Yeah, fuckin' hell!... Oooouuaaggh!" and then, subsequently throughout the duration of the album, enthusiastic musings made to an impartial passenger that usually started with, 'Ugh, that's so fuckin' cool because...' or simply, 'Goddamn!'. Subsequent listenings have consistently found me silent but with an uncontrollable grimace spread across my face punctuated by frantic headbanging and accompanied by the sporadic raised fist or horned salute to the sounds before me. I don't resort to the traditional metal posturing over nothing.


So, I've done a fair job of illustrating that I really like this record but considering I hate reviews that are pure unqualified reaction, I suppose I should make some sort of an attempt to explain WHY I like it so goddamned much.


For starters, the production is spot on, as far as I am concerned. Though I have no qualms with the deceptively clean sound presented on 'The Merciless' (and I sure as hell have no issues with any of the songs), I don't think 'Hades Rise' would be quite as effective without the layer of 'ashy-de-polishing' added to the sound. I can't really get technical about it because I am not well educated in production techniques but I can say it services the songs and pussies accustomed to the more popular sound of 'metal' prevalent today aren't going to be put off.


I don't think I've ever heard the word 'bestial' used anywhere outside of a metal context but Apollyon spits it like the band's forebearers and influences from the eighties owe THEM a couple bucks. I have always likened Aggressor's vocal style to a re-animated or crazed aristocrat of sorts which is somewhat diminished at times on this album as I find it only slightly difficult to discern who's on vocals from track to track. In any case, it doesn't really matter considering it sounds as if both parties smoked two packs of Lucky Strikes each and then gargled with and partially swallowed a fistful of stagnant earth before stepping up to the mic (this is fucking metal and so this is obviously good). All in all, perhaps a bit less distinct and so we lack a bit of the vocal variety of the last album but all is nonetheless well (No guest vocals this time, either).


Most importantly, the riffs remain solid as ever but with a certain swagger I can't recall hearing to such an extent prior. As I will speculate in a minute, this album feels like rock embellished thrash in large part (but it does, true to form, out and out thrash consistently). Label mate Danny Corralles (Autopsy, Abscess... like you didn't know) does a guest solo on 'Gaping Grave Awaits' summoned by Apollyon with the incantation of 'Kill, Danny, Killll!!!'. Also, anyone foolishly concerned with the effect the absence of Blasphemer (except for a solo) would have on the riffs or guitarwork, no worries. He is indeed an excellent guitar player but nothing is missing here.


(Note: This fucker is already getting long in the tooth so I'm going to hope you'll pick this album up and rely on your ears and not my words to relate the superbness of the riffage throughout instead of rambling on about the merits of each song)


'Hades Rise' is both a departure and a logical regression of sorts (kind of like how Darkthrone's last two albums can be said to reach back to influences that predate the bands earliest output and in effect, regress to a sound that is 'older than their old sound'... dig?). In the former sense, one of the prime differences could be attributed to Aggressor's complete absence from the drum kit (due to, I assume, serious injuries he sustained from a four story plummet a few years back that has left him wheelchair bound -- this could account for, by and large, the 'black and roll' tempo and style of many of the tracks). Historically, Aggressor and Apollyon have shared time on all instruments, notably on 'The Merciless' where vocal and drum duties were traded off song to song revealing a marked difference not only in the vocals but in drumming technique depending on who was behind the kit (To clarify, I'm not sure how they've handled it on the albums but live shows had the now departed Blasphemer on guitar with Apollyon and Aggressor splitting drums and bass/vocals). Apollyon generally handled the mid-tempo songs whereas Aggressor was at the helm for the full on black thrash assault tracks. Fortunately, Apollyon has proved on this album, though he may not fully possess the flashiness or speed of Aggressor's style, he can produce a more-than serviceable blast beat when called for with overall playing being tastefully primitive.


Packaging wise, the Increased Damnation logo rears its head once again though is far less an eyesore this time around. No real complaints aside from a lack of printed lyrics. The old-school 'band doing shit with their friends from other bands' photo collage in the liner note fold out (Appollyon in ridiculous white pants, Fenriz playing croquet, Nocturno Culto on a dirtbike, Aggressor and Blasphemer in showercaps and is that slack jawed fucker Scott Carlson from Repulsion I see in there?) is nifty as fuck but a lyrics booklet would be preferable considering their lyrics on past efforts practically demand to be shouted from a podium in their Baudelaireian grandiosity. Though I am a great admirer of Luciferian symbolism in all esthetics, I often find myself put off by the redundancy of heathen lyrics so I need to stress that Aura Noir have an unmatched kind of necro-pomp or, to borrow a phrase from their own 'Black Deluge Night', an 'elegant wave of devastation' to their lyricism. That said, I really wish I had a reference word for word what is being hissed... its not as if an integral part of the listening experience is forfeited but it is worth reading along with or in this case listening closely to their lyrics. Anyways...


If you've actually read this far, firstly, shit, I'm sorry. This is my first attempt at an album review ever. My next submission will be more to the point and concise. Secondly, I hope you've gleaned an inkling of the excellence of this album from my words and will go buy yourself and your closest denim-vested cohort a copy.

It mustn't have been a nice period for Aura Noir. A long break divides this "Hades Rise" from the previous "The Merciless", and it’s been a forced one: one can't start running a band again when you have fallen from the fourth floor and lost the use of both legs (if forever or for just very long is yet to see).

Way more bitter is the fact Aggressor was a highly praised drummer, who had contributed in the early works of plenty fundamental bands (as Ulver or Satyricon). And it’s surprising to witness how it's been during this period that "Hades Rise" has been written, without anything to filter through. They have not lost a single ounce of their sarcastic black feel, no less bitter but more less indulgent than the most depressive black scores.

They play traditional black metal, but are not similar to DarkThrone or Immortal; they play traditional black metal, I say, and then substantially are a very very harsh thrash band with satanic attitude and deviated lyrics, in the same way Venom, early Bathory, early Sodom, early Kreator and early Mayhem did back then. Ooops, I forgot one of the most important sources: early Voivod, from whose discography some songs really seem to have been taken ("Pestilent Screams" that has also the same tempo of "Nuclear War", "Schitzoid Paranoid"). Double ooooops, I have not mentioned Motorhead: the punk 'n' roll vibe is very present, in the vocal parts and in the guitar riffs too.

This is a magic band, an illusionary band. Because they give the impression to be playing the same old song, and with a raw technique, but actually they are quite various (the songs mostly are mid tempo based, but frequent accelerations give a bestial twist), and the riffs sparkling and fanciful, though they are one of the most old fashioned groups on Earth. And in the case you haven't understood it yet, let's say it clear: they kick ass!

Originally written for Silent Scream http://www.silentscreamzine.com/Home.asp?Lang=ENG