I have to be honest, I had no idea about this band. So, I got to see what was going on with them. I read about them a bit before listening to their music and got ready for the journey. Well, I found that AURO is a Black Metal band from Germany, active since 2017 and originally formed by two members: Framan and Dragg, who (for this new album here) incorporated more musicians into the band. And what was next? Simple, going to their music. I went to their first full-length album from 2020 named “Auro,” and I immediately understood what this was about: let’s say AURO appears like a band close to the more “traditional” Norwegian Black Metal line. And while the tracks were rolling, I found more and more of these “traditional” Norwegian Black Metal elements in here. From the listening (of the first album), I found strong connections with bands like ENSLAVED, GEHENNA, ABIGOR, DIMMU BORGIR, or (why not) the Germans NARGAROTH (just to say). Hey, when I jumped to this new album here, “Im Schatten Der Bastion”, which, by the way, will be released in both digital and CD formats via Folter Records, something really funny happened: So, I jumped into the first track, ‘Präludium: Nachtschrecken’, and the exact moment I hit play, my little kitten was coming through my bedroom door. Just as the song began with that kind of ultrasonic sound, she got scared and jumped. That was so funny. The things that happen around Black Metal. Cats getting scared. But anyway… Going back to the music, I encountered that AURO is pretending to keep the same structure of the first album: atmospheric Black Metal as fuck. That’s what the deal is: pure fucking atmosphere. I won’t go track by track, as, for me, the album is essentially moving along the same vibe, but I really got connected with tracks like ‘Im Schatten Der Bastion’, ‘Lux Caeaca’, ‘Haus Der Tausend Flügel’ and ‘Ausklang: Figura Serpentinata (Im Zenit Der Eklipse)’, the closing one. I think that one closing the album is my favorite one. It’s, again, so atmospheric, aggressive, melodic, dense and chaotic, all at the same time, conferring to it the perfect track to end an album like this. I must say that “Im Schatten Der Bastion” resulted in a very good listen to me and that this is definitely going to be one of the best Black Metal albums this year for sure. Highly recommended band and highly recommended album. More info here: www.facebook.com/auro.blackmetal, www.facebook.com/folterrecordsgermany