Style: Melodic black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Closing my eyes I picture a cliff in front of me. I look over it and the pit I feel in my stomach is similar to what this album does
Thoughts: Aara is such a fascinating band to me. They have an insane album release schedule - averaging about one a year. While the latest albums have not been the most interesting, the first two showed an incredible amount of promise.
The debut showed that the band could mix incredible atmospheres with blistering speeds and intense melodies. En Erog Einai moves further in the melodic direction without losing any of the intensity.
I want to get this out of the way. The band has decided to drop the religious atmosphere from the debut. This was what got me enthralled by the band and its a damn shame that they have decided to move on from that sound. On one hand that makes the debut special, but I also wish that they had continued to explore that sound to see what else they could get out of it.
That is the one and only detractor I have for this album. Outside of dropping the Gregorian chants the band has continued right where they left off with the sophomore album. In fact, Arkanum - the opening song - is one of the best that they have ever penned. It takes the melodies explored in the debut, makes them more hypnotic, but also adds in a level of intensity that the debut never had. This is essentially black metal played at death metal intensities.
The band is relentless. At no point do they stop blasting and bombarding me with melodies. When I say melodic I don't mean something that you would hear in a pop song or in melodeath. This is an audio assault on the ears that happens to have a recognizable pattern to it rather than being dissonant in nature. Melodic black metal it not something to fuck with when it comes to Aara. If caught unawares the music will trample you.
Aara's first two albums are their strongest for me. I may revisit some of the current albums at a later date, but as of this writing the first two albums see the band at their peak. Now that the trilogy of albums is complete maybe they can explore a new sound, or revisit the melodic perfection that they showed early on.
Written April 19th 2024
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