ALBUM REVIEW: Myriad Woes – Above Aurora
Polish blackened doom juggernauts ABOVE AURORA may have only released a few records since their formation in 2015, but the band have definitely come along in leaps and bounds with each subsequent release. Eschewing the more typical death/black metal sound of many of their contemporaries, the band draw heavily not just from slower, more ponderous forms of metal, but even touches of post-rock, lending the duo an incredibly distinctive sound that captures the unbridled intensity of black metal and the sonorous and sombre hooks of doom and sets them apart from their underground contemporaries in the process. The band’s latest album, Myriad Woes, sees the Poznan act take their music not only into darker but more dramatic territories, with the end result standing as perhaps their most powerful and bombastic effort to date.
Inner Whispers starts things off in an ominous manner, building a sombre, haunting atmosphere that immediately draws the listener in, with the other musical elements, from the minimalist, funereal drums to the crystalline guitars creating a powerful sound right off the bat without having to be overtly aggressive or bombastic. The track relies on subtle discordance and heady synths and soundbites to keep things engrossing, with a few meatier guitar hooks thrown into the mix to add a denser and more chaotic edge to proceedings. It covers a lot of ground musically from black metal to funeral doom and even post-rock, making for an interesting blend of styles that keeps this extremely engrossing as it ebbs and flows between these differing styles without the shifts feeling forced or abrupt.
Spark is much shorter and punchier than the epic opener, and it possesses a much more driven, black metal-orientated sound, with tar-thick rhythms and throaty, coarse vocals lending this a much harder and darker feel. It’s punctuated by lighter melodicism from the lead guitars and a few folky acoustic touches towards the song’s climax, which give this a far more visceral – but nonetheless polished and varied – approach than its predecessor, crafting a streamlined, but impactful statement.
Efforts To Fail, with its more fluid drums, hypnotically sinister guitar work and bestial, barking vocals, begins to tie the doom and post-rock flourishes that were present through much of the first track much more effectively into the black metal, even making room for some hazy psychedelic moments and some incredibly blistering and visceral moments that are significantly more caustic than even the harshest points of the album’s first half, leaning prominently into the cacophonous undercurrent that has only been hinted at thus far. Horns Of Dread, a song that has a much tighter, more precise style to it, provides an exceptionally focused and lean take on the sort of blackened doom that has served as this album’s backbone at various points, but manages to makes it sound far more accessible and biting than before, notably in its guitar tone, lending this a catchier and sharper sound than the three prior tracks without sacrificing any of the excellent ferocity and cavernous sound.
No More Shall The Boulder Descend, another longer offering similar to the album’s opener, adopts the same distinctive mix of ethereal guitars and components of post-rock, soundbites and expansive production, but has a noticeably denser bass sound and lots of stunning, imaginative leads which, much like the way this album started, helps to make this far more engrossing for the listener. Again, it covers a wide range of styles and peppers in a lot of impressive musicianship along the way, inverting the more doom-laden sound of the opener with a much more black metal centric sound that brings things to a head in a much more acerbic and savage manner than it began on.
With Myriad Woes, ABOVE AURORA haven’t just perfected their blending of black and doom metal, but managed to expand on their sound as well, incorporating a far wider range of influences and creating an album that is perhaps their most ambitious and most cohesively impressive to date. Although Onwards Desolation and The Shrine Of Deterioration are both great records in their own right, it’s clear that in the four years since their second album and this one the band have been perfecting their core sound and exploring ways in which to make their newest music even more imposing and visceral, and it’s certainly paid dividends in a big way, paving the way for some truly excellent music in the band’s future.
Rating: 8/10
Myriad Woes is out now via War Anthem Records.
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