ALBUM REVIEW: The Great Mist Within – Auriferous Flame

Determined to add yet another string to his bow, champion of Greek extremity Ayloss, who can already boast of being the mastermind behind MYSTRAS and SPECTRAL LORE, has burst forth with his latest project AURIFEROUS FLAME and its debut offering The Great Mist Within.

Voice Of The Gleaming Edge is our first meeting with the project and pulls no punches from the outset, it comes galloping in with a ferocious blast beat, from which sprouts an alarmingly frantic guitar line and a gnarled, screeching vocal. As the track settles in, the melodiousness of the riffwork blooms, becoming subtly melodic in that tremendous fashion that is so inherently tied to Hellenic black metal. Even when it is harsh and inhospitable, there are still thin rays of golden sunlight piercing their way through the gloom. This is only exacerbated when a bombastic keyboard line is introduced to round out the track before it fades off into closing samples. As introductions go, this is about as good as it gets.

Molten Gold is where the tempo and intensity drops considerably into a plodding and ritualistic first half. What should be noted however, is that is not meant as a derogatory comment. What we find here is a deeply layered multiplicity which swirls and coalesces like graveyard fog to create a choking miasma of pitch-black atmosphere. Its rank and creeping effluvium culminates in an ultra-fast section which takes the listener almost completely by surprise, snapping them awake and demanding they focus their attention before changing again to a segment that wears its influence from BATHORY’s Call From The Grave very clearly on its sleeve. Think screeching lead lines above thunderous, knuckle-dragging meanness.

Building itself around a juggernaut of a central riff, The Great Mist Within is quite possibly the author’s pick of the album. The drum work here is phenomenal and the combination of angular, grating riffs and weird, folk-ish melodies will remind the initiated more than a little of Swiss lunatics BOLZER. If you listen to only one track from AURIFEROUS FLAME, make sure it’s this one.

Fitting itself perfectly to its name, Ancient Corridors opens with a slow, lurching march, a perfect soundtrack to being lost and wandering hopelessly through an ancient labyrinth. There is a very attractive acoustic midriff and the rapid section that follows it is far from your standard bit of blasturbation. Here we find a textured, considered and very well written chunk of blackened hopelessness that could almost, to some minds, be considered catchy. Turning to the album’s closing moments, we flow almost seamlessly into Mass Of Ice, which rounds things off in a classic outro fashion, namely with meandering acoustics and the cleansed atmosphere which typically follows a tremendous downpour.

As a whole, AURIFEROUS FLAME provide a fresh and textured look at an existing formula. While it is not a reinvention of the wheel, what it does provide is a dense package of stirring riffs and deeply evocative atmospheres which hold up tremendously well against the already ferocious reputations of Ayloss’ other material. Truthfully, who could want more from their black metal than that?

Rating: 8/10

The Great Mist Within is out now via True Cult Records.

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