Tuesday, January 15, 2013

I Can See Your "AURAS"

Picture taken from facebook.com/aurasofficial

While the Djent genre is on a major up rise, great bands are springing up all over the world, and yet again, Canada cashes in their chips, particularly Cambridge, Ontario.

Welcome, AURAS. A 4 piece Djent band "specializing in polymeric melodies and breakdowns heavier than your average cement truck." Described as "4 friends bound by groove and centered by a constant pulse." You can tell these guys are all on the same page, and know exactly where they are going, or at least where they want to go with the music! But by no means are they new to the scene, you could actually say their seasoned veterans, with a whopping 10,000 likes on Facebook, It's likely that if you haven't heard this band, you will soon enough.

So, why write about these guys now? Simply put, they just released a new album January 12th on Bandcamp and iTunes, and it's dropping jaws across the board. In my opinion, you all need to hear it!

The album opens up with "Emerge", an eerie 55 second intro that blends it's way to a groove heavy breakdown, and finishes off with nice contrasting leads, then merges it's way right into the next song "Sciolist."

Track 2 offers the first taste of their powerful vocals which you'll find throughout the album, This is where we get our first introduction to their tempo changes, lead/rhythm combinations, and the use of heavy/melodic song structure.

Now here's the crazy thing about this band.... they continue to do all this crazy shit throughout the entire album! That's right you get another 5 songs to dabble into, and each one has something unique to offer the listener!

Carrying down the heavy/melodic path, AURAS lead into breakdown heavy "Aporia", which continues to deliver all the things we are already loving about this disc, with 1 extra ingredient to the mix. This song features a guest guitar solo by the one and only "Aaron Marshall" of the band Intervals (who will be sharing the stage with Between The Buried and Me towards the end of January), and boy, does it deliver! The song sort of plateaus at the slowest part which is the perfect time for Mr. Aaron Marshall to move in and do his thing before the band kicks back in with one of their "breakdowns heavier than your average cement truck." A must listen.

"Chimerical" is next on your playlist. Being the longest song on the album, you might expect it to be one of those songs that you never really listen to all the way through... well I assure you, that's not the case here. AURAS keep things fresh and groovy throughout the entire track, while sticking to their heavy/melodic riffs, this masterpiece is loaded with well structured vocals, breakdowns, solos, and some solid lyrical content that will hit close to home on all ends of the spectrum.

Here's a snippet: Buy the song here!!
"Could they envision a place,
Something like this world,
That we have now (that we have now),
A place to prosper, free to grow.
Don’t fear this change."

"Susurrus" offers that eerie feeling we got at the beginning of the album, but with a little more melody and groove to add to the mix. An instrumental with character nonetheless, and a perfect way to recollect your thoughts right before pounding you with the final 2 songs on the album.

Only because we all missed them so much, "Cascade" opens up with those crushing vocals, and if this doesn't make you want to bang your head, then I don't know what your fucking problem is. "Open the flood gates." The accompanied lyrics to the intro, which begins as definitely the heaviest song on the album, it's so powerful that I want to mosh in my chair. And after a good pounding for the first minute, AURAS brings back that epic melodic chorus feeling, but only for a few seconds! Then they jump right back into crushing your skull with their breakdown heavy riffs. Don't be fooled though, drummer Nathan Bulla holds his own on this one throughout the entirety of the track, and in the end, the group only leaves us begging for more.

Which of course we get. One more to be exact. The title track for the album "Panacea", weighing in at 3 minutes and 49 seconds, this song completely ties the album together and offers us everything we love about the band and so much more. So powerful, this song is AURAS doing what they do best, and putting 110% into their work. Incredibly instrumental driven, but when the vocals are there, it's the perfect addition to what these guys can accomplish.

The album "Panacea" by Auras is an incredibly strong release from a "local" band, and with these guys being so young, that only leaves them room to grow. They certainly have a bright future ahead of them. If you like AURAS, pick up the album, buy some merch, or book their band in the closest city to you! They deserve it! That's what they want most according to their Facebook page! "these 22-year olds want nothing more than to come to your city and groove like it's 1969."

Thanks for reading, share this post if you want to support AURAS, or FunkenAudio in anyway!
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