It’s got to the point that I actually have zero expectations for a band who claim to be black metal but eschew any image. For every Wolves In The Throne Room there are a dozen post rock bands stealing the riffs for some attempt at ‘edginess’ and running off into Indie Land to twiddle away pointlessly. Add in another local dialect for the lyrics and Lunar Aurora had their work cut out to impress me despite a healthy history of releases since 1996 (and incidentally older photos do seem a little more of a traditional image, if history interests you).

Initial impressions do little; Im Gartn begins with some spoken word and a trippy little keyboard refrain which sounds more pastoral than black metal. But wait! When the riff kicks in, and the vocals snarl forth driven by some relentless drumming, I am in indisputably black metal territory, albeit early In The Woods… rather than Black Witchery. It’s a fine riff, too, and the keys drape it with a cold, misty urgency to excellent effect.

Owls herald the next song, a slower take but no less in that pagan/nature atmosphere. It’s another rather compelling corner of the forest; harsh riffs with a cold breeze at it’s heart snaking around the trees and the deep swathes of melody shifting from the old In The Woods sound to Fen and back again. The melodic end of black metal but thankfully post rock free and all the better for it.I’m beginning to enjoy myself.

Beachgliachda slows down and takes a sidestep into more folk elements despite a riff that still has sharp teeth but when the keyboard melody starts with a more prog feel I shiver as images of Camel begin to stalk me. It is not that bad, though, some welcome turbulence bouncing the keys about and the harsh guitars taking chunks out of it.

There is, for all the aggression, a sense of longing rather than malevolence to Lunar Aurora which very firmly places them around Fen particularly on the rather evocative Sterna. Just they utilise much less prog and so far keep the post rock-isms to momentary spikes of irritation.

It does go a little wayward on Reng for me. It’s a bit of bland meandering at first and though it does its best to grab the song and shake it out of the torpor with some snap and bite it doesn’t entirely work and keeps stumbling back in before being rescued by the riff and the battery. On the plus side it doesn’t waste any time gazing at its shoes either.

I can’t help shake the feeling that a fair bit of this is fairly familiar in feel and sound but on the whole this is pretty good and even occasionally moving music; they have mostly kept a tight rein on the prog tendancies which means they have brought a little colour to the sound rather than just dumping a whole bucket of paint on it and losing the essence. They have retained an air of mystery to the sound, too and a thoughtful use of between track soundscapes has knitted the whole together rather well.

If you are a fan of early In The Woods, Fen, Wolves In The Throne Room or others of that ilk then give Lunar Aurora’s Hoagascht a shot. It might well sneak up on you.

(6.5/10 Gizmo)

http://www.myspace.com/lunaraurorade