Let’s say you wanted to do the following. Take the style of Mayhem’s Wolf’s Lair Abyss, but swap Maniac’s death-by-sandpaper vocals back out for Atilla’s Hungarian drawl and operatic flourishes. Then, blend in some of Emperor’s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk and perhaps a touch of Satyricon’s Nemesis Divina. Finally, take that concoction of the late-90s black metal sound and give it that modern sheen of bands like Nightbringer and Akhlys. Ideally, it would be a sound you could get lost in, a transcendence both ominous and awe-inspiring. Fresh, but still connected to the past in a meaningful way. Dissonant, but not in an obnoxious sense that’s all too common. A perfectly violent and rapturous balance.
Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, you’re too late. Aornos has already done all of that on The Great Scorn, which came out via joint conspiracy among Symbol Of Domination Productions (Belarus), Ira Aeterna (Italy), and The True Plague and Black Metal Records (USA) on April 29.
Aornos is a one-man project helmed by Algras, whose history in Hungary’s black metal scene includes Frost, Bornholm and Carcharoth. While many of those acts have looked backward to history and paganism, Aornos looks firmly upward. But this gaze is not restricted to the moon and the stars, but on the spirits residing within and beyond what we call “existence.” This is clear from the lyrics to “From a Higher Reality”:
Bleeding crack in the sky
Reveal the unfriendly creatures of the higher spheres
The crawling chaos in the dark night
He will arise to deliver the gift
The universe unveils
A glowing entrance to destiny
In a circle of stars
You scream in revision all of you
The terrible embrace of the Serpent
Wraps the waist of Existence
With her magic power breaks
The might of Time
I’m normally not one for lyrics about space, the cosmos and the like, but I kind of dig these lines. If you do as well, check out the song below and check out the entire album!
