Addaura – Demo ’10

As kingdoms collapse, the wretched queen would be pleased to have Addaura blasting throughout the castle hallways. An experimental black metal project based out of Seattle, WA that plays some of the must gut-wrenching, ambient, realistic tunes I’ve heard in a long time. It speaks volumes when a band understands the roots of the music they play, Addaura just gets it. With only this demo released, they seem to be a driving force in the west coast scene of metal, at least I hope that’s how it is. In the past, I’ve asked for several songs to be played at my funeral, it seems to just stack up quickly, doesn’t it? Forget every track or album I’ve asked for in the past, this record is the one I want while humans mourn over my lifeless corpse and shed tears of sorrow for no good reason at all.

When you hear this record it gives you that feel of pain, pain that is literally sitting right inside you and no medicine can cure it. Feelings of grief and disappointment set in while you try to save your loved ones from some mystical force. “White Deer” does that except with more depth, faster driving black metal riffs and scream of intense anguish. The screams on this record are far from your normal black metal screams, they’re not guttural but they’re not grunts, just good ol’ fashion screams from the heart. The emotions I get from this record are pretty difficult to explain but if you could imagine a dark room filled with candles and people in robes, hoping and praying to some form of God that the land they have captured will soon be overwhelmed by beasts, that’s the image I get. Extraordinary landscapes filled with waterfalls, battles that last for years on end and small towns burning as God himself has cursed them.

The record itself can do powerful things, none of them can be explained though, at least in my eyes. Sort like a beast that’s in it’s slumber, wake him and the whole town will be in ruins. One good thing about the whole town being destroyed, Addaura is the soundtrack to how great it will look. “Through The Rain”, another flawless track off a masterpiece of a demo, it gives you that sense of warmness with the more slow tempo parts in bits but also that raging urge of slaughter and sacrifice as make your way to the top of the mountain. Call me what you will but the spiritual connection that this record has is beyond me and I can’t understand it at all. I’m not sure what kind of spiritual realm I’m speaking off but it’s neither good or bad, that’s all I know. Addaura embodies the whole black metal emotion that certain bands had when it first rooted as a genre but the majority have lost in the midst of trying to be as “evil” as possible. Black metal isn’t suppose to be “my bands more evil, hail Satan, voodoo cult,” blah blah fucking blah. Create the music you want to make and love, Addaura is doing it and quite well might I add.

Addaura — The biggest secret in the metal world, hands down. If this demo doesn’t blow your shit out of the water, I’m not sure what will because experimental black metal is what we need more of in the world of brutality and hatred. Seattle, WA seems to be birthing a whole new breed of musicians and bands, if they keep turning out like these guys and Lesbian, you guys might wanna strap in, it’s gonna be one hell of a ride.

Official Myspace. Official Last.fm. Official Facebook. Download the record here.