AURIFEROUS FLAME – The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers

vote
6.5

• Bands:
  AURIFEROUS FLAME
• Duration: 00:30:20
• Available from: 08/11/2024
• Label:

• True Cult Records

The Greek multi-instrumentalist Ayloss has progressively carved out an authoritative space for himself in the world of European extreme metal: a reserved character, not at all inclined to proclamations or anything other than music, he mainly dedicates himself to black metal, expressed in different formulations depending on of the relevant project.
If with Spectral Lore, his best-known creation, what is played and developed is an airy, atmospheric and cosmic black metal, with Mytras the folk influences become important and decisive in directing the sound.
We then have projects that are less known so far and for true underground enthusiasts, such as Clarent Blade and Divine Element, finally arriving at Auriferous Flame, an entity that in recent years has taken up much of the Hellenic musician's time and attention: it is a profession of love for naked, raw and primal extreme metal, a heartfelt and visceral reworking of music which probably brought Ayloss closer to metal and pushed him to dedicate himself body and soul to it.

“The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers” is the third full-length under this name and comes just one year after “Ardor For Black Mastery” and two after “The Great Mist Within”. It is therefore useless to expect major changes compared to the first steps, rather we observe a path of consolidation around the so-called 'fundamentals' of this proposal. Three songs, for only half an hour of music, enough to appreciate the ideas of an artist who may not go on to rewrite the history of black metal, but when called upon knows how to express himself in registers that are never banal or botched.

The first track, beyond its ponderous duration, is the one to offer the best vibrations, thanks to a variety of atmospheres which in the following two compositions is sacrificed on the altar of barbarism. In “The Insurrectionists”, on the contrary, we appreciate the epic soul, the creation of a crescendo of heroic tension, the art of preparing the ground for thunderous attacks, and then proceeding in thrashing assaults that take us directly back to the dawn of the genre .
A tribute to the first Bathory publications, if we want, more generally to the whole proto-extreme metal undergrowth of the first half of the 80s, which is in harmony with a granular and in any case discreetly defined production and the putrid, excessive vocality used on this occasion from Ayloss. One could almost imagine that the imaginative scenarios normally offered with Spectral Lore, translated into another context, appear to us not with the abstract beauty of that project, but with the bloody carnality of more concrete metallic forms linked to less intellectual thoughts.

In the continuation, it was said, niceties are completely put aside, in favor of instinctiveness and cruel desires, giving birth to two assaults with cold weapons that have no other intention than to hurt and spread as much suffering as possible. Dirty black/thrash riffs are in clear evidence here, like an essential rhythmic pace characterized by speed of execution, with sparse concessions to reasoning and any type of more advanced discourse.
Works? Enough, because if both “The Caretakers” and “Oration To The Storm” are well written and performed, even if they suffer from a veneer of genericity and absence of real personality which, inevitably, puts them a step below what is usually produces Ayloss.

“The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers” is therefore a discreet publication, more for devoted lovers of the Greek musician than for those looking for real new pearls to listen to and perhaps add to their record collection. A pleasant homage to an era and a type of sound, nothing more, nothing less.