Aura Noir - Deep Tracts of Hell (1998)

Black Thrash Attack might have taken its foot of the brakes, but the full length Aura Noir sophomore Deep Tracts of Hell nearly crashes off the speedway proper and levels half the neighborhoods surrounding the tracks. In fact, I think this record goes a little too far into a more purist black metal direction, not unlike some of what the band's Scandinavian peers like Marduk or Dark Funeral were all about during the same time frame. That's not to say it's just endless, soulless blasting, but the hints of thrash here are a little more scarce, especially in the first two tracks which crash through your ear canals like a corpse painted locomotive that has come flying off the rails. They do steady things out in later tunes like "Swarm of Vultures", while others like "Blood Unity" sound like alternate mixes to tracks from the debut album, but this is pretty much the peak of extremity this band has ever achieved.

Like the more colorful cover tones, the mix here has a little more depth for me than Black Thrash Attack. That's not to say it's perfect, you can still expect plenty of grime to it, but it doesn't feel so neutered and dry as it did on that album. They experiment a little more with lead sounds (like the warped and wavy dissonance in "Blood Unity"), and once again you get some Hellhammer/Celtic Frost/Nocturno Culto vibes, although this comes through primarily in some of the barked vocal lines, or the tune "Purification of Hell" which is a total foreshadow of what would be coming after, though this particular track has a weird hard rock party atmosphere to it, especially in the bridge and lead. But if I'm being honest, that's one of my favorites here, the more intense and fast material, while not badly executed at all, just sort of passes in and out my ears like so much barbed wire floss. There's a little bit of a 'sewer' quality to the record, imagine a black metal approach to Prong's Force Fed, and I find that the more weird and atmospheric it gets ("The Spiral Scar"), the more engaging, but there's not quite enough of that to keep it consistently compelling.

It's corrosive, filthy and furious, and the lyrics rule, but for every lick or vocal line that perks my attention, there are several more that evade it. They were back to a two piece here, and certainly Deep Tracts of Hell has more of an originality to it than the records preceding it. The sharing of the various instrumental duties by Aggressor and Apollyon is pretty unique, certainly a more even distribution than, say, Darkthrone, but it doesn't ultimately shift me in one direction or the other. This was also a sort of 'cusp' for the band, headed into a divisive territory where they would partly change their sound to something more organic and directly worshipful of Tom G. Warrior's bands, so I can see why some people greatly prefer this one (or Black Thrash Attack). For whatever reason, even though these discs were my first exposure to their music, I just happen to favor where they were headed to where they came from, unique or not. But none of that detracts from what a daunting effort this is...if you favor a more dissonant black metal edge cross-bred with the hyper death/thrash or something like Altars of Madness, and some Bathory or Hellhammer for good measure, this remains a pretty intense listen.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/auranoirofficial