Aura Noir – Out To Die

The ugliest band in the world is back. The black/thrash supergroup released its fifth full-length and tries again to stir the waters of the extreme metal scene. Aura Noir are of course, a big name in black/thrash metal and they produced some of the best albums in the underground scene. Well, “Out To Die” didn’t impress me too much as “Hades Rise” or “The Merciless”, so I won’t write only flattering words as many websites do, just because they are a big name.

With one first approach, “Out To Die” doesn’t differ from the previous albums, but it is more groovy and all this aggression is somehow mitigated. Songs like “Trenches”, “Fed To The Flames”, “Abbadon”, etc. are classic Aura Noir songs, full of fast drumming, tremolo pickings and vibratos. But the whole new album looks like a music recycle of “Black Thrash Attack”, “Hades Rise” and “The Merciless”. Although it’s a very well-played record, surely it isn’t something that would blow your mind. One song that shows a groovy touch and a lost aggression is “The Grin From The Gallows”. Though, it is a low-tempo song without something special, it’s still an occult capable track and reminds a lot of late Darkthrone stuff.

Maybe “Out To Die” lacks creativity, but it doesn’t lack power. “Withheld” is a very strong song (and one of the best in the new album), “Priest’s Hellish Fiend” follows the same way with more evident groove elements and so does “Deathwish”, too. More pure black/thrash metal is the title song in the end, which has the usual rage of the past albums. Raw tremolo pickings with fast alternations and killing drumming are coming for a furious ending and it’s paradoxically the second best song of “Out To Die”.

Conclusion: Aura Noir released a very good album characterized by their classic style. It’s a very well-played and capable record, but it isn’t the record that kills or destroys everything in its way. I liked very much the occult vocals of Aggressor, although they “stumble” somehow, and I also liked the guitar riffs in two or three songs. Maybe it isn’t the album that you will go crazy, but definitely it doesn’t suck. Personally, I’m neither satisfied, nor disappointed by “Out To Die” and I think that its predecessor albums are better. Well, I guess that black/thrash metal music can’t be evolved, so I had to deal with it.