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AURA NOIR
Aura Noire

Indie Recordings (2018)
Rating: 8/10

And so it has come, six years after their last album – Out To Die – Norway’s Aura Noir spread their black leathery wings and descends upon us like ravenous harpies unleashed from their foul lair. You knew it was coming, you braced yourself for so long and yet you still weren’t prepared for the lashing.

Aura Noire is the sixth outing from this vile clan of black thrashers, and it doesn’t disappoint. With talons fully extended, beaks sharpened and skin tougher than dragon hide, lead-off single ‘Dark Lung Of The Storm’ ransacks old, primitive Voivod of its rust ‘n’ bones and comes hammering, clanking and flailing wildly.

Black plumes of oily smoke devour the nostrils and coat the lungs as Aggressor spews forth much mulch, bile ‘n’ bilge as the trio chaotically rattles with volatile unlawfulness. It’s straight up black thrash from the bowels of Hell; Aura Noir raking the eyes, pecking at the retinas, spiking your flesh and chewing on your bones. The assault is unrelenting; a punked up deathgasm of hate and evil whereby Apollyon’s hectic drum patterns master the art of barbarism.

But the mood changes dramatically with the festering, squalid lurch of ‘Grave Dweller’. This time the pace is left until late as the threesome vomits up a slow, menacing vibe or squirming vocal snarls before finally gunning us down with machine-gun fire riffage, the razor-sharp chords carving and gouging before the final hammer attack.

Aura Noir have never taken any prisoners, and so with this new bout of violence there was never going to be any change. The likes of ‘Hell’s Lost Chambers’ (the longest track on the platter) come with jagged structuring; the jarring framework an almost uncomfortable stir of icy evil, with Blasphemer’s guitar sound as wicked and spiky as it ever was within that organic void of arrogance.

The rest of the tracks come thick and fast, all built upon those thorny foundations of jolting thrash hostility. The abrasive strains of the short ‘The Obscuration’ and ‘Demoniac Flow’ provide equal measures of ferocious thrash and scowling moodiness, while ‘Shades Ablaze’ chugs with nefarious aplomb as the trio combs the depths of the 80s thrash underground but add their own despicable and prickly edges.

‘Mordant Wind’ also chugs with ominous intent, with the wailing guitars providing perfect flecks of metallic grey to accompany Aggressor’s commanding bellows, while ‘Cold Bone Grasp’ again nods to the likes of early Voivod with its punk-thrash grimness; the drums clanking to the guitar and bass din amidst wild conjurations of Venom, Hellhammer and Darkthrone too.

When the attack finally subsides, we’re left with the usual bloody wounds we’ve always suffered with an Aura Noir opus; the experience on the whole being raw, primitive, rusty and mocking in its leering diligence. And that’s exactly what one would expect when members Aggressor, Apollyon and Blasphemer get together. Aura Noire is a black thrash trip you won’t forget.

Neil Arnold

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