Sepulchral Aura - Demonstrational CD MMVII
March 24 2008 at 07:57:33 AM
It is now almost too easy to predict what a CD professing themes of “esotericism, the occult and mysticism” might sound like. The confirmation of whatever brand of ill-defined, unbalanced and abstracted, though probably still marketed as Black Metal music was burned onto plastic being no less of a disappointment and assault upon the senses. Of course, Finland holds the most interesting variety of offenders. However, not a word of the above seems true of Sepulchral Aura who, despite displaying every outward sign of these novel catchalls, actually does follow through on some level; for a change performing unmistakable, if slightly unconventional Death Metal, veins and all.
A pro-recorded demo re-pressed for wider distribution by founding member J. Partanen, whose association with the close knit fellows of ambient label Aural Hypnox helps explain some, but not all the apparent differences here, the demonstration’s four tracks act as a kind of throwback to the years when Sunlight Studios was synonymous with all that was evil and in ways so decadently viscid; leaving a grisly trail back to Hypocrisy and Entombed with guitar leads that sound so close to the real thing that they might have been outright sampled from the first two Deicide records.
Comparisons cease there as Partanen ventures toward more celestial territory, guiding the music’s scaly underbelly through near-death channels flush with dimly sensed keyboards, carbolic gurgles and abominably gross lows. It’s a small, but promising start, which seems to grasp what others casually disregard; those conceptual matters of spirit are made whole and more satisfying in the way Sepulchral Aura resounds first and most violently throughout the entrails. Highly Recommended.
[Todd DePalma]
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