Band: Empire Auriga
Title: Auriga Dying
Label: Moribund Records
Distribution: Moribund Records
Release date: 2011
Review: CD (re-release)

Lansing, Michigan (USA) based Empire Auriga are about to release their newest effort in a few months through Moribund, and to tease our appetite, the label re-releases Empire Auriga’s sublime 2006-album Auriga Dying (again). Initially, Auriga Dying was self-released by Empire Auriga, and for a first time re-released by Moribund in 2008. So actually this is a re-re-release, FYI.

Auriga Dying is one of the most confusing albums ever. It stands for purest obscurity, penetrating the worlds of grim Underground Black Metal, mesmerizing Dark Ambient, cold Funeral Doom and Neo-Folk-injected Dark Martial Industrial. Opening track Dust And Ether, for example, brings an oppressing and suffocating form of apocalyptic Industrial in the vein of Puissance, supported by Funeral Doom guitars, militaristic drums and oppressive keyboard lines. Second song, Time Expanding, is a rather nuclear-sounding Funeral Doom / Dark Ambient piece – consider it a weird symbiosis of Burzum, Abstract Spirit, Drudkh, Void Of Silence, I Shalt Become and Swartalf. Wonderful!Sorrowsong too floats between spheres of ritual Neo-Folk / Industrial (Blood Axis, Current 93, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud, Death In June etc) and oppressing Funeral Doom (Abstract Spirit, Nortt, Urna), including a hint of Summoning / Za Frûmi-oriented synth-bombast.Dreaming Of Breath And Stars is a noisy soundscape in the vein of certain projects on, let’s say, Cold Meat Industry, World Serpent or Memento Mori.The Lurker, the fifth song, reminds me a lot to Burzum’s Gebrechlichkeit, including the xylophone-sounding melody.Waiting For The Fall is a short instrumental song, closely related to a mixture of Epic Underground Black Metal and Symphonic Doom. And Soul Interrupt, finally, is another Industrial / Ambient soundscape with a freezing atmosphere and a noisy-droning sound.

Auriga Dying indeed is an album for those who seek for the most gloomy, mesmerizing, eerie, haunting, oppressive and obscure sound. The musical collages are extremely intense to experience, yet at the same time it is one of the most exciting journeys I experienced in years. Conclusion: LOOK OUT FOR THE UPCOMING ALBUM LATER THIS YEAR! I can hardly wait!

93/100

Ivan Tibos.