Indecisiveness. Tragic flaw of many of art’s most enduring characters: Hamlet, Holden Caulfield, Spongebob Squarepants. It was also the feeling I got when I first listened to Luna and Aurora by German post-black metallers, Träumen von Aurora (Dreaming of Aurora). This looks, smells and is packaged as a double album, with Spring (Aurora) following darkness (Luna), a neat inversion of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The band, however, bills Luna and Aurora as their third and fourth albums respectively. Stylistically linked, released on the same day, but definitely separate albums. Which makes rating and reviewing this a bit of nightmare (and also explains why it’s just a touch late): do we consider it a 90-minute experience or two 45-minute collections? Does that even change anything? Who knows? Who cares? … Well, you see, I do. Because this, and a few other incidents of indecision, are the only things standing between this and a 4.0.
Let’s back up a bit. Träumen von Aurora have been banging about since 2007, and released two albums to moderate acclaim in 2012 and 2013. Their music has always been a mix of melodic black metal, post-black, and prog, with more instrumentation and fewer rasps and growls. This would not usually be my thing, but I was late to promo sump and pickings were slim. Research revealed a band with minimal hype and publicity. No one seems much interested in the overly long, quirky post-metal meanderings of this black metal band. Yet this is post-metal in its truest form: eschewing the traditional tenets of the genres it borrows from, without abandoning them completely. The music flows and twists and turns and echoes itself without getting boring. There are synths, there are guitars, there are cleans, there are growls. And butter my butt and call me a biscuit… for the most part, it works superbly well.
The best part about the duo is how dynamic and interesting they are. The band incorporates all the elements together to make every song feel like an interesting—and fun—journey. Most importantly, they complement each other like… butter and biscuits. Know how prog noodles sometimes? Well, Träumen von Aurora uses the black metal to provide impetus (“nicht alle dünkelheid der welt”). Know how black metal can be a bit… monochromatic? These guys pack in all the feels of post-rock to add emotion and flavor (“Luna I”). Even the weird bits (the eccentric time changes, the occasional spoken word, the pianos) fit in seamlessly. 90 minutes is long, but Luna and Aurora are always fun and interesting to listen to, with no discernible drop in quality between the two (if anything, Aurora is the stronger). The best part? All this weirdness packs a real punch, coming together with SotY contender and album closer “…kann eines lichtes flackern trüben.”
Criticism comes where it usually comes with double albums: bloat. To their credit, Luna and Aurora never become boring (I’ve listened to them both from start to finish a number of times), but some tightening would’ve distilled the potency even further. There’s a shagginess to the songs that causes them to occasionally get lost, but it’s so charming that you’ll hardly notice. I also don’t detect enough of a contrast between the two albums. While one is supposed to be dark, and the other light, they both just sound progressive and melodic to me. This isn’t a huge issue, but when you’ve specifically emphasized the chiaroscuro, it’s a bit of a let-down when it isn’t there.
A weird, eccentric double-ish album that doesn’t fit into any traditional metal boxes, made by an unknown band singing in a language you probably don’t speak? Yeah, that’s a hard sell. I was not optimistic. Yet there is real charm and originality here, and something odd happened during my walks home: I began looking forward to listening to Luna and Aurora more and more. And when they ended, I was happy to start them all over again. That doesn’t happen very often. I wish the band had been more decisive in making a single album, and in editing the material. Because while these are both very good, there’s a single great album lurking here. If you give them the time, you’ll have a blast finding it.
Rating: Luna: 3.0/5.0 | Aurora 3.5/5.0 | Combined 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Trollzorn Records
Websites: traeumenvonaurora.de | | facebook.com/traeumenvonaurora
Releases Worldwide: August 19th, 2022