BookendS
If you like Fel Voices "Regnum Saturni" or the Throne of Katarsis album "The Three Transcendental Keys", this is for you. Purchased before the first track was half way done.....
"The arrow of the hunter
Aiming to the light of the fathers
An astral apocalypse
A hole in the center of the universe
The earth taking it’s shadows
From the downfall of the stars
Universal penumbra
The great irradiance
Let there be light
Where lifeforms dwells
Let there be stars
In the vast cosmic emptiness
Luminous radiation
Blessing with it’s warmth
Orbiting bodies
Around the divinity
In time of total eclipse
Over a dead system
A ghastly remembrance
Of incandescence
Centuries of despise
For the devouring savior
Heliocentric adoration
To the greater star
Feel the warmth
Of the arrow from the sun
On an endless fight
With the immortal serpent
Heliocentric adoration
As the sun is sinking
Below the horizon
The mind of the fidels
Unveil to chaos
The cult of the sun
Hiding in the shadows
A whole system crumbles
Empty eyes to grey skies
The cult of the sun
Has been failed
By the glowing all-knowing
God that has abandoned us
Oh, cult of the sun
An abandoned earth
Left in ashes and suffering
Damned wandering souls
In eternal penance
Empty shells
On a ravaged dead world
Gazing at the cosmos
Waiting for the return
Looking at all the stars but one
The deceased divinity
An overwhelming absence
Turning to the shade of a memory
Drowning in the light
Reminiscent fragments
The downfall of a star
Below the ground, unto the earth
Calling
To arms
Against
The vastness of space
Fire scorching the horizon
Praying to a dissent god
Forcing the astral force
To a radiant black sky
Meaningless incantations
To a deaf ring of fire
Sacrifice and sanctify
The figure of ignition
Our crown of thorns
Spilling blood to the eye
Feeling the scorching pain
Of the loss
Oh, beloved sun !
Oh, vanished deity !
Take the blood of our sons
Blessed be thy aura !
Oh, merciless sun !
Oh, absent figure !
We kneel before thy
Supremacy
Oh, eternal sun
Oh, hidden and almighty
Our flesh belong to thee
Irradiance will set us free
Mutilating to the bone
In the hope of a return
Reduced to piles of frost and ashes
In the longest of nights
The earth takes it’s shadow
From the sun sinking lower
The earth takes it’s shadow
From the sun sinking lower
Witnesses to the downfall of a star
Unaware of the doom to come
Insects on a cosmic scale
Particles among infinity
The earth takes it’s shadows
From the sun sinking lower
The earth takes it’s shadows
From the sun sinking lower
This is the end
Deaf to our prayers
This is the final stand
Before the longest night
The sun is gone
Rapture of the star
Everlasting isolation
From the vast creation
The sun is gone
Forever gone
Our sun is gone
We are alone"
"A haunted village
Crawling mist and putrid stench
Inhabited by the fools
The grotesque and deformed
The reign of a cult
To the outer dimensions
Blood on the walls
Unholy rituals
Invocation
Of the highest pillar
Curse of the unborn
Demiurge of the void
As the darkness devour the sun
Rise a blood red aura
Descending from the stars
Cursed bridge to a thousand eyes
The pillar of blapshemous fog
Set ablaze in the darknest night
Blessing illumination
The mark of an unholy sign
The pillar of blapshemous fog
Set ablaze in the darknest night
The pillar of blapshemous fog
Set ablaze in the darknest night
Fidels circling the altar
Empty eyes open in nothingness
Sacrifice of flesh and blood
To the greater cataclysm
The pillar of toxic mist
Reflecting the rays of light
Turning to a scorching tower
Irradiating the deepest night
Advancing toward their doom
The funeral procession
Under the whirling threatening clouds
Change the color of this world
This is a funeral march
Step by step advancing forward
Into the downward abyss
The storm down below
Pillar of fog
Drowning in daylight
Pillar of fire
Scorching the darkest night
Wanderers in the ruins
Crawling through the dust
The remains of
An ancient world
Deepest delusion
Of a wicked invocation
Malevolent
Storm of despair
Heralds of the end
The weight of a condemnation
The incandescent march
To an obscure veil
A mass sacrifice
Of obedient followers
Hierophants of death
Sealing the faith of thousands"
"Buried deep
Downward a coffin of rocks and ashes
Searching for the light
Illumination down above
Crackling skin
And adamant bones
Feral golem
In isolation
The earth as a coffin
Watching a sky of solid rocks
A hollow infinity
In the darkest caves
Forlorn ray of light
The only guide
To ever see the stars
Above the mineral ocean
Forgotten creatures
Stone eaters
An ancient realm
Doomed to a fractal curse
Once were gods
Before castaway
Dwellers in the burning core
Of a melting planet
Arising below the ground
Ruler under the surface
Merging organs of solid rock
Irrational ravager gaze
Doomed eaters of stone
Herald of the last season
The fracture of the earth
Back to the primordial
The fracture of the earth
Back to the primordial
Now follow the light
Descending to the center
Of a melting decaying body
Cursed to implosion
The reshaping of continents
Exploding in blinding lights
A new extinction
Reset of the surface
On this ground sarcophagus
Buried pariahs to mankind
Locked under the mantle
Wanderers downward
History is rewritten
Locked down under centuries
Answers lying beneath
The glowing path
Chosen ones made of stone
Eternal wanderers
Following the path to the light
Deeper and deeper
The reshaping of continents
Exploding in blinding lights
A new extinction
Reset of the surface
On this ground sarcophagus
Buried pariahs to mankind
Locked under the mantle
Wanderers downward
Trapped within the centuries
Erratic lost souls
In a realm of stone
Forgotten but never gone
A radiant beacon
Last hope of a race
Rejected devoid of flesh
Abandoned messiahs
Rejected devoid of flesh
Abandoned messiahs
Rejected devoid of flesh
Abandoned messiahs
We are
Wandering down the path toward the light
In the hope of a new
Horizon
Forever we’ll be
Wandering down the path toward the light
Forever we will
Suffer
Altered state of evolution
Standing above the proving ground
Feeling the wind and the rain
Drowning the tears of despair
Unmovable against the tide
Of the endless passing of time
Looking in the eye of the storm
Of desecration
Forever we’ll be
Wandering down the path toward the light
Forever we will
Suffer
Forever we’ll be
Wandering down the path toward the light
Forever we will
Suffer
Forever we will
Suffer
The reshaping of continents
Exploding in blinding lights
A new extinction
Reset of the surface
On this ground sarcophagus
Buried pariahs to mankind
Locked under the mantle
Wanderers downward
Forever
Wandering down this path
Toward the brightest light"
about
"... there are blasts and frenzy, there are winding motifs that remind me of Morningrise-era Opeth, and there are even little medievalist flourishes. This is a record that is progressive more by arrangement than funny time signatures or crazy virtuosic solos. The keys on here are particularly tasty; a lot of black metal bands are, to be frank, bad with keyboards, selecting chintzy patches and mixing them in a way that either drowns out the guitars (sacrilege!) or just kind of whine in the background. Here, they gel with the strings and vocals, thickening but not overpowering the sound."
"...it has to be said straightforwardly that a strong misanthropy and just a very large amount of sorrowful, aura of hopelessness beats from 'Astral Lore’. It’s just that this is given not in a typical and boring way, but in a fashion that captures the listener’s attention. The riffs are largely tremolo and chord playing, and melodies ringing out on open strings in a staccato technique. From the sounds oozes uneasiness, graven horror. The credit for this goes not only to the riffs and song construction, but also to the sound. It’s heavy, sultry, and despite the rawness the guitars present, it’s definitely professional (of course, it hasn’t been over-sweetened). And then there are the vocals… Here also lies a huge asset for building atmosphere in ASTRAL LORE’s music. Full of emotion, like a skilled juggler they shift in tonality depending on the need of a particular part of the song."
Late 90's BM worship, but it's also a lil more than that. This album takes the best elements from the scene it's inspired by and mostly avoids the worst of it; the song-writing is well-written, it's performed with passion and fun, and the production is raw but isn't lo-fi. (i.e. it doesn't obfuscate and/or suckass).
Tl;dr It's safe but high quality BM. Recommended. Rabbit
Some of the best cosmic black metal I've heard. Mare Cognitum continues to prove themselves to be masters of crafting a vast, celstial soundscape, and the Lovecraft-esque atmosphere present throughout Aureole's half definitely made me want to check out the rest of their discography. honeycombguy