Aara are one of the more exciting bands I've gotten into the past few years. Their incredible debut album immediately caught my attention, and while they haven't reached those heights again all of their albums have been high quality. The latest being no exception.
The past three albums have all been part of a trilogy for the band and have shown a similar style. A slight shift from the first two albums, the Triade series focuses on high intensity rhythm riffs (almost death metal styled riffing) with melodic leads soaring over top. The production is improved over the first album and (on Nyx particularly) the band plays around with the idea of three or more guitars throughout the album.
Aara have this knack for creating catchy melodies that mix in hope, despair, darkness, and light all into one riff. It's a paradox and I don't know if I've heard another band do it as consistently as these guys do. Nyx in particular is very good at capturing this feeling. At one moment the riff will be a desparate minor scale then switch into a soaring major key. It's incredible when it happens and the fact that the rhythm guitars are as intense as they are only adds to the urgency of the songs.
Nyx also brings back the religious atmosphere that So Fallen Alle Tempel had, with moments of Gregorian chants and church bells. I absolutely adore this addition to the music and it propels Nyx as one of the better albums in their discography.
It should be noted that all of the songs only contain one speed: really fucking fast (for the most part). The band loves blast beats and tremolo picking, and it suits the style well. There are (very) brief sections where the band slows down for an atmospheric interlude but those are often shorter than a minute long before the blasting starts again.
Aara have finally wrapped up their trilogy and I'm curious where they go from here. I hope that we see another slight shift in style as they did with these three albums. They have run their course and I am always excited to see where a band takes things after the closing of a chapter such as this.
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