Auðn

From the anguished beauty of the bittersweet melodies and the dark, atmospheric, aura, to the stellar sound production and the vicious throat-tearing vocal delivery, Auðn’s self-titled debut album is altogether flawless.

Black metal has no right to be this beautiful.

It is also bleakly grim. At times, it is blasting and brutal, yet perfectly balanced and never straying a solitary note away from the mesmerizing ethereal soundscape projected throughout.

The lyrics are bellowed in a harshly rasped croon, echoing olden phrases in the mother tongue, speaking drab tales of blasphemy, desolation and despair. All over a doom-laden soundtrack fully befitting a Kaurismäki drama.

This album is like a major-label effort from a seasoned artist producing blackened high art by the informed decision of some elitist kvlt committee of the dark satanic overlords at the helm of the Norwegian inner circle.