It’s been over 30 years now since the Second Wave Of Black Metal first made its global entrance. Over the years, Black Metal has expanded exponentially, to heights inconceivable to its founders. The insane amount of bands/projects has risen to nearly 53000 bands being archived in the Metal Archives (at time of writing). On the flipside, that has led to most ‘conventional’ band names and album titles being taken. Astonishingly, three guys from Ecuador managed to find both an original band name and album title: Avræ Lvnæ – ‘Ntdd Strl’. With a name and album title as unconventional as it is, is it right to assume the music is too?
Fortunately, the core of Avræ Lvnæ’s business is, indeed, Black Metal. On the surface, the music feels familiar and true to the old formula. Less obvious, are the subtly placed melodies which sound almost psychedelic, to the point that it’s hard to tell if its being played by a guitar of a synthesiser. Fundamentally, there’s a strong beating pulse of the drums with very melodic rhythm guitar (very much akin to what Inquisition, Sargeist or Satanic Warmaster are known for!). Building on this enjoyable foundations are tones of different leads, clean guitar arpeggios and synth parts. On paper, it might sound like it’s been done before, but it feels amazingly engaging. Avræ Lvnæ might use familiar formula’s, but they make it work without losing the listeners attention.
Though technically very capable musicians, they construct their songs with a primary focus on atmosphere. Rarely does the speed of the music exceed its mid-paced tempo, rather it increased intensity with very slow blastbeats. The vocalist, too, doesn’t spit forth his blasphemies, but instead opts to scream in way similar to Xasthur (e.g. managing to stretch his lines out for prolonged periods of time). Sonically, the screams sound ethereal and light. Not too far off from a less gritty Spellgoth of Horna and Prevalent Resistant fame. In contract to the wildly varied instrumental part to Avræ Lvnæ, the vocals are kept more one dimensionally. If this has been deliberately is unknown, what it creates is unity in an otherwise constantly changing musical experience.
‘Ntdd Strl’ is very enjoyable album. It is pure Black Metal at heart incorporating more modern influences as well. From the psychedelic Inquisition-like melodies, Austere-like melancholic parts and an overall riffing most similar to Satanic Warmaster and Sargeist… Avræ Lvnæ delivers a strong debut album. The band certainly hasn’t made a conventional Black Metal album, but fortunately, it never drifts off into a full on experimental direction. They’ve put up very high expectations for their sophomore full-length, but until then, get your hands on ‘Ntdd Strl’!
