I first found out about Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris by perusing the Teufel’s Tomb forums one day and came across a post by the band, about the band, posted in the general metal discussion forum despite the clearly stated rules against spamming, so I promptly banned the band member responsible. A day or so later I got a whiny response from said band member claiming I was being "unfair" and what he was posting was "relevant to the topic." In other words, he was being a huge drama queen. Suck it up, princess!

A day or so after this incident I went to check my PO Box and lo and behold, there was the demo of the band this knob was rambling on about, The Aurora Veil by Ne Obliviscaris. I promptly decided I couldn’t be fucked and didn’t bother listening to it for months on end. Finally, today, feeling the need to add "just one more review" to the current update, decided I should probably give the disc a spin.

Prior to listening to the album I’d read a few articles stating the band was a progressive black metal band, so I knew going in to expect something a little fruity, but, fuck, this album is pretty much as neutered as a metal album can get while still being able to be technically called "metal." The album contains music that one would expect from a prog metal release, it’s got the bubbly bass that sounds like an elephant farting, the weird tempo changes, the predictable riffs and the overdone progressive drumming.

Honestly, the album as a whole is pretty predictable and clichéd, but there are a few elements that set them apart. Firstly, there’s the use of violins in lieu of synths, which is a little unusual, plus the use of clean and harsh vocals, which in itself isn’t unusual, however the style of clean vocals is different, since, for one thing, it’s a guy doing the clean vocals instead of some broad in a tight corset trying to show off her vocal range, however, the guy, a Mr. Tim Charles, who also happens to be the violinist, often sounds like a woman, or worse, like wanna-be emotive rock vocalist.

The music itself isn’t without it’s merits however, as it is quite "beautiful" and technically well played, but the band put too much emphasis on trying to write "beautiful music" instead of trying to put together a solid metal album, which is where things quickly fall apart. There are moments in the material where the music is very raw black metal, which, honestly, is really good, and the emotive progressive material, on it’s own, is good for that style, but when they try to combine the two it’s like making Smores, but realizing you’ve run out of chocolate, so you use a greasy turd as a substitute. Cut it any way you like and it’s still a wafer, marshmallow and turd sandwich. The rough raw black metal wails, blast beats and shredding guitars mixed with the nasal whines and violin sound so out of place, as do the black metal shrieks during the emotive flamenco picking wanky bits.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this album is actually bad, all I’m saying is I don’t like it, it doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate that, despite it’s flaming gayness, it’s "quite lovely." If the album was a pure raw black metal album I have a feeling it would be excellent, and if it were a pure wanky prog album it would be good too… in it’s own way, but unfortunately it’s not, and it’s really not something that would appeal to readers to this site, men who eat steak, watch MMA and zombie horror flicks and drink beer that tastes like piss but whose alcohol content could make a grown bear stumble on a single pint. If, however, you like tofu, ballets and drink Zima, then not only are you at the wrong fucking site, but you’d probably also like this… and you’re also likely a 15 year old fat chick who wears black and cuts herself. Fucking cock huffers.

Written By: Teufel