In my opinion, Solitude Productions certainly know where to find the best underground doom bands – and Swedes Nox Aurea (Latin for ‘Golden Night’) are no exception. Formed in 2005 by various members of black metal bands (Rimfrost and Domgård in particular) specifically to create something musically different from their other projects, ‘Via Gnosis’ is a debut album that reeks of epic, resounding doom/death.
Opening with a cinematically eerie symphonic build up, the doom begins with a power chord the size of Greenland crashing down onto you, punctuated with a tolling bell as an exclamation mark. The coldly orated vocals soon turn into pained growls and the guitars morph into strands of aural sorrow, spun like a melodic spider’s web over the solitary piano work and flowing synthesisers. There’s a slight gothic edge in the way some of the music is composed here, especially when the tuneful female vocals kick in as a counterpoint to the distressed roars and despondently spoken male vocals, and the synthesisers sound almost like a evil choir in rapture. Six of the Nine album tracks lay within the 7-13 minute mark length-wise, all of which – when listened to individually – are excellent slabs of gothic doom.
As good as the music is, I find the album begins to drag toward the end of its 72 minutes. But that’s the only real negative point I can put forward. If you’re in the right frame of mind to actually sit and take the album in as a whole, it’s just about manageable – but for me, around the hour mark my interest begins to wane and I begin to peruse the other CDs on my shelf that are screaming to be played. Individually the tracks are enjoyable enough, but it just seems too far a stretch to take them all in, in one sitting (bear in mind this is coming from a man who enjoys listening to Esoteric double albums back to back).
Not wanting to end on a negative note, Nox Aurea are a great band who have the pedigree and ability to go on to create great things, and this album would be a great addition to any extreme doomster’s CD collection. ‘Via Gnosis’ is brimming with a cold, sorrowful mood that creates images of purple velvet-clad mourning mothers weeping over an altar lit by crackling church candles in the mind’s eye.
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