Aura Noir - Live Nightmare on Elm Street (2006)

Live Nightmare on Elm Street is a little hard to come by, the only Aura Noir live album that I've heard, but it's also quite a treat for fans of their first few releases, recorded in 1996 on their home turf, and features a track list that incorporates just about all of Dreams Like Deserts and Black Thrash Attack. Despite releasing a decade after that period, it also SOUNDS like it represents that, because it's raw and hissy, something that was a characteristic of their earlier studio mixes, but thankfully not as dry as Black Thrash Attack. There's a sinister depth that the live setting brings out in the material, and while it partly sounds like its resonating off the walls of some rusted metal factory, it has a charm to it which is worthy enough of the studio counterparts that spawned it.

They were playing as the three-piece with Rune, and just smashing through all this material with some seasoned hands, feet and snarls. Audience interference/sound is kept to a minimum, and through it does feel rough around the edges, the audio is ultimately listenable and really conveys the hellish fervor of the riffing. Ironically, I noticed the bass guitar a lot more here than the first 3-4 studio efforts, and I kind of like how it prods against the rhythm guitar riffing better, though you lose some of the strength of the latter without numerous members tracking it in the studio. Heck, in "The Rape" it sounds incredible pounding out that ominous intro before the blast. The drums crash loudly, and the cymbals can get a bit too irritating, a symptom of many live captures, but overall I don't have many complaints about the mix levels. When the band gets a little more focused, on tracks like "The One Who Smite" which has a moderate pace, it can get pretty powerful; but then again, as they carve out barnburners like "Mirage" or "Conqueror" it also sounds pretty awesome.

I might even go so far as to say I enjoy the experience here more than their 1995-96 studio output, just in its presentation it manifests the hellion within a little more. Not that I go out of my way to collect live recordings, but I wish this one were a little more broadly available, as I had to listen through it digitally. Someone did re-issue it on cassette a few years ago, and I think this mix is perfect for that format, and fanatics for that format would probably be the ones to most appreciate this to begin with, but even if you can't track a copy down, purists for that earliest era of Aura Noir's career would probably enjoy this one a whole lot.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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