Aura Noir - Out To Die (2012)

Unholy Batman, this is more like it. Grim black thrashw arriors Aura Noir are right up there with Darkthrone when it comes to their grim depictions of life, love and leather and their new dirty opus is what I'd call real metal - angst ridden and spitting all the way to the bank of Belial. For those of you who wait time and time again for Maiden, Priest etc, to revert to their old ways, I suggest you move on down to the bowels of Hell and grab yourself an Aura Noir record, because this is as primitive and raw as it gets, the band happy to nod to the old ways and yet play it in the truest sense because they can - because they've never left that lifestyle and have never succumbed to the corporate industry. 'Out To Die' is a grotesque slab of thrashing mayhem designed to tear the denim and light the fires of unholy war. From the Venom-esque rattle of 'The Grin From The gallows' to the hyper puke of 'Trenches' and the black n' roll terror of 'Witheld' this is the sort of stuff that refuses to buckle or sell out, this is the type of album to exist as follow on to Venom's 'Black Metal,' Voivod's 'War & Pain' and Celtic Frost's 'Morbid Tales.' But for those not usually endeared by such sleazy trolls, I suggest you roam elsewhere. 8/10