Any of you familiar with this black metal band? They have just released their debut album out of nowhere, a concept album based on -

"Willem Barentsz' third and final expedition to find a northeastern passage to Asia in 1596/1597 and explores the subject in great detail"

..something I know nothing about but the album comes across as a musical of this final frostbitten journey. The music itself is very impressive and well written wrapped in a frozen atmosphere. Hailing from the Netherlands the lyrics are in their native tongue so I would be hopeful if they find a label, which they are searching for that we may see an English translation. At the minute the album is available for free from their bandcamp, so turn the lights out, draw the curtains and get lost in the blizzard outside. Seriously take a listen and see what you think, after a few listens I have been very impressed and rate it right up there this year, hopefully not over reacting at an early stage, but I found it very fresh and unique in its own way. Decide for yourself below!

https://greyaura3.bandcamp.com/releases

Love the production, but apart the lyrical concept, this band isn't really bringing anything new to the table. The riffs sound very familiar and uninspired, kind of black metal by the numbers.

Got an email from these dudes yesterday. The concept sounds fascinating, if nothing else. But with the quality of the Spectral Lore and Thy Darkened Shade releases I think I've had my fill of 80+ minute black metal albums for the year, and sampling a few songs I found nothing that stands out in any way as Gorblethorp mentioned.

I honestly think it is one of those albums that needs to be listened to in one sitting with the right kind of atmosphere to really appreciate what is going on, in the same way with the likes of Darkspace and Paysage d'Hiver for example. When I sampled a track here and there I thought it was pretty good but once I read the idea behind the album and listened to it right through it took it to a whole different level. A chilling atmosphere with morbid riffing one minute shifting to a victorian sounding melody the next similar to something like A Forest of Stars. I appreciate it is not everybodys cup of tea but I think it is en excellent start for this young band.

I was curious about it, but I get an error message telling me to log in because there are no tracks added?!

Yeah looks like they deleted everything. I guess after noticing they had a lot of buzz they decided to give it a more proper release.

From the band's FB page:

"Erik Evangelista - For some reason, the page shows that there are "No tracks here yet".

Grey Aura - Due to requests from various labels we're currently speaking to, we had to take down the bandcamp/youtube links (this may be temporarily, depending on whether we decide to release the album through a label or not). However, this means we are one step closer to releasing this album physically, so please be patient. It'll be worth waiting for."

For convenience' sake.

Really digging this by the way. Quite captivating, although that probably also has something to do with me actually understanding the vocals. There's not enough good dutch black metal sung in my native language. Let's hope this gets a proper release.

Full album here:

Downloaded it in the nick of time! I've heard the first couple songs so far, good stuff indeed. I'll have to listen to the whole thing in one sitting as suggested. Out of curiosity, where did you hear about them, STORMM? They would have passed me by entirely were it not for this thread. Pretty amazing how quickly they got label offers, too.

I'm going through "Naar het noorden" and I can definitely hear the resemblance to A Forest Of Stars that was mentioned above.

I'm curious though, what does the title mean? Google Translator isn't being very helpful...

"Naar het noorden" means "towards the north".

The album title seems to be written in old dutch (I guess) It translates to something akin to "a truthful description of three sea stories, the world has never heard stranger." Apparently it's from a old travel guide/journal called "Nagivatie om den Noorden" which translates to "northern circumnavigation" written by Gerrit de Veer around 1598.



Reminds me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Barentsz It's in the same time period.

They went from mass emails asking for reviews to offers from a label in 48 hours? Color me impressed and/or skeptical.

That is a good sign I would like to see as previous mentioned english translation as well as a worthwhile packaging. They mentioned on their facebook they have sketches/art to go along with the album booklet so if done right this could be a very nice package to have (and history lesson lol). Ps good call with Spectral Lore, love the band and also found that a great album though I think disc two is much stronger than disc one.

@ Mysticaloldbard I came across them doing some of my usual rounds through you tube. As I mentioned before the track or two I heard did not do them justice though once I heard the the full thing and realised their vision I was very impressed. Coincidentally the weather here has been total shit and this album has been a good soundtrack to my cold, wet journey into work, just might not have that effect in the blazing sun though.

appreciate than hekkjelle, thank you.

The band have just announced they have been signed to Blood Music and the debut will be released on a double cd format and digitally early in 2015 with a possible vinyl at a later date! This is great news and if the labels past work is anything to go by I am very sure this will be an excellent package. Great news for these guys.

I wanted to listen to their music but as the videos have been deleted, I will wait untill they post something again.

At least the subject seems to be interesting, fuck, the album title seems to be imposible for me to pronounce it correctly.

Yep same with everybody lol we cant make head nor tail of it haha. But I believe when the album is released it will have some sort of English translation. As you say an interesting story and music wise a kind of audiofile to that story. The spoken interludes and sounds are used to great effect.

Here's Track 8 - "De Kust Van Nova Zembla" - the closing track to Disc 2.

I'm not fluent in Dutch but have studied it and can usually pronounce the words I read fairly easily and I assume it'll be difficult for most Dutch speakers since it's in Old/Middle Dutch. Just enough of a difference to give pause (at least for me. Obviously, a native Dutch speaker is more than welcome to correct me).

Here's now Track #2 - "Naar Het Noorden"

One of the things that really impressed me with this release is how they where able to pull of that cold winter atmosphere with little to no keyboards. The riffs and melodies have a real icy feel to them which compliment the story perfectly. A few other bands can achieve this type of atmosphere but lack the whole package on offer here in terms of story and concept. If Paysage d'Hiver are the heart of a blizzard this album is the journey into it.

Might have to borrow that quote, haha!

Your more than welcome