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Aurora_Borealis-Northern_Lights-REISSUE-CD-FLAC-2001-CATARACT
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ARTIST : Aurora Borealis STOREDATE : 00-00-2001
ALBUM : Northern Lights RIPDATE : 12-29-2014
YEAR : 2001 RUNTIME : 55:48 min
GENRE : Black Metal LANGUAGE : English
LABEL : Diehard Music A/S GRABBER : EAC Secure
SOURCE : CDDA ENCODER : FLAC 1.2.1
QUALITY : 984 kbps Avg 44.1kHz 2 channels SIZE : 414.9MB
URL : http://tinyurl.com/ofh4qfy TRACKS : 13 Files
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01 Thrice Told 3:50
02 Enter The Halls 4:54
03 Images In The Nightsky 3:35
04 Draco 4:26
05 Sky Dweller 4:46
06 Hydrah 3:55
07 Dream God 4:25
08 Distant 2:40
09 War Of The Rings (Bonus Track) 3:57
10 Offerings Of Jade And Blood (Bonus Track) 6:20
11 Constellations Embellished With Chaos (Bonus Track) 4:48
12 Aggressive Dynasty (Bonus Track) 2:46
13 Calm Before The Storm (Bonus Track) 5:26
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55:48 min
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│ Black Metal from Team America. │
│ │
│ Note that this IS a reissue, seeing the original was pressed in │
│ 2000. This version was done for the European market and contains 5 │
│ bonus tracks (9-13) and reissued one year later, in 2001. │
│ │
│ For the uninitiated, Aurora Borealis is Ron VentoÆs lone project │
│ that combines the best parts of black, death and thrash metal to │
│ create a fairly distinctive sound. Although, if Kreator had retained │
│ their style from ôPleasure to Kill,ö gained a fascination with │
│ ancient mythology, and released an album using techniques │
│ (blastbeats) and technology from the year 2000, I suppose it might │
│ sound slightly similar to ôNorthern Lights.ö VentoÆs raspy black │
│ metal vocals are well done, and are a prefect compliment to the │
│ frenzied nature of the music. Lyrically this record manages to │
│ intelligently avoid genre clichΘs, and provides an interesting read │
│ for those who are a fan of archaic folklore. │
│ │
│ As it has become the norm for almost all of his projects, Derik │
│ Roddy absolutely slays on ôNorthern Lights.ö Additionally, RoddyÆs │
│ drum sound has far more energy than his work in other acts like Hate │
│ Eternal thanks to a lack of blatant triggering, and a rather modest │
│ ratio of blastbeats. Not to undermine RoddyÆs performance in any │
│ way, but the real star of ôNorthern Lightsö is Rob VentoÆs │
│ exceptional guitar work. Vento exclusively performed all the guitars │
│ on this CD, and clearly the man knows how to construct catchy riffs. │
│ Highlights like ôDream God,ö ôSky Dweller,ö and ôImages and the │
│ Nightskyö are all a testament to VentoÆs strong sense of structure. │
│ The riffs flow smoothly and impeccably, frequently switching tempos │
│ and running the full gamut from frantic, single note tremolo picking │
│ to monstrous, headbanging thrash riffs. Vento is also no slouch when │
│ it comes to scripting solos, as proved in the aforementioned riffing │
│ giant known as ôDream God.ö │
│ │
│ Putting all praise aside, this album does have one fatal flaw: a │
│ nagging bout of brevity. Subtracting the closing track that is │
│ actually only a couple minutes of the same drum pattern repetitively │
│ played over syths, the album clocks in at a paltry 29:55. However, │
│ there is a re-released version of ôNorthern Lightsö that contains │
│ five bonus tracks from their debut full length, ôPraise The Archaic │
│ Lights Embrace,ö so anyone who is interested in purchasing this CD │
│ should try to find the 2002 re-release. While not terribly │
│ inventive, Aurora BorealisÆ second full length is still a solid slab │
│ of metal supremacy that will appeal to an expansive scale of │
│ metalheads, and is assuredly worthy of a purchase. │
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