Aura Noir - Increased Damnation (2000)

Increased Damnation is an interesting fan package which covers a few historical components for Aura Noir, studio and live material for the completionist. That said, this is not a compilation you are turning to for consistently, the contents are all over the place, but, along with the first two records and the live record they'd put out years later, dating back to 1996, this sort of 'completes' the first phase of their career. The entirety of the Dreams like Deserts EP is present, giving that a needed reprint for the time, and there are a selection of live tunes from another of their 'Elm Street' gigs, though I think these are later recordings than on the live album and there is a track difference since Deep Tracts of Hell was available, with "Swarm of Vultures" represented in a pretty raw and blistering form.

The Fenriz-fronted "Mirage" starts things off, transplanted from the EP, but featuring his vocals, and this is a much cleaner-produced version that fits more with forthcoming album The Merciless than the original EP. There are also some demo tracks from Deep Tracts of Hell, and they sound pretty sweet, I'd hazard that I found these a bit more impactful than what ended up on the actual album, just some writhing and nasty Teutonic-flavored thrash with ravenous vocals that hover just below the attack of the guitars. As the closer of the compilation, they've even got the most primitive version of "Tower of Limbs and Fevers" with just Aggressor performing, and his vocals are wild and hilarious almost like some sort of drunk narrator...some of their goofiness actually reminds me of lines that Fenriz has included on some of the 2000s Darkthrone output. Ridiculous but also charming, and this version of the tune has a weirdness in general to it that almost sounds like it's part Ved Buens Ende if that were thrash-injected.

The lack of rare or unreleased materials here limits its viability to me as a product, sure there are specific mixes of tracks you haven't experienced, but several are redundant just to this compilation. Granted, there was not a lot of Aura Noir material out there by this period, and if you hadn't had access to the EP then this might have been worth it for that fact alone, but this is not something I would ever have even broken out for a listen again if I wasn't writing through their discography. That's not to say it sucks at all, some of the alternate mixes are quite good or perhaps even preferable, but unless you're hell bent on grabbing everything the band has ever released, this is easily passed over for any of their full-length studio material.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

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