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AZURE EMOTE “Cryptic Aura”
AZURE EMOTE “Cryptic Aura”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Recently, fellow Worm-scribe Thor took the band CHANGELING to the woodshed for being so progressive and herky-jerky in its music that it was impossible to enjoy a steady groove. This is a common problem for many progressive and technical death metal bands, where wankery is the end-all and be-all of the project. Is there a way to do really progressive and unpredictable death metal without disappearing up your own alimentary canal? Or is caveman death metal the only way to go?
The band AZURE EMOTE may show us a way out of this conundrum. First off, this band is indeed very unpredictable and unorthodox in their style. And they are also very much death metal. Are they perfect? No, there are times when I kind of got lost along the way listening to “Cryptic Aura”. But overall, it’s a surprisingly smooth and cohesive listen. This is a band that freely employs violin, keyboards, sax and clean vocals along with knee-buckling riffs and cyclopean roars.
AZURE EMOTE has a strong death metal pedigree. Bassist Kelly Conlon actually played on DEATH’s ground-breaking “Symbolic” album. Lead vocalist and keyboardist Mike Hrubovcak has had a long distinguished career in MONSTROSITY and VILE while guitarist Ryan Moll played in grinders TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION. And who else would we expect to play drums here except Mike Heller? Is there a band Mike Heller DOESN’T play in these days?!? I think RAVEN, FEAR FACTORY and MALIGNANCY are the first three of his bands that come to mind. So a pretty good crew here.
The band does not believe in long epics. No song here cracks the 5 minute mark. They do cram a lot into a short length of time. But most of their changes make sense and seem to flow smoothly. There’s plenty of crunchy mayhem, although you shouldn’t expect super brutality here. It’s not the typical kind of technicality. Hrubovcak’s eerie keyboard work adds a ton of atmosphere to the music and in most cases, enhances it greatly. “Aeons Adrift” is a great example, with a really cosmic feel that lives up to the song title. AZURE EMOTE also boasts the presence of violinist Pete Johansen, who adds an odd kind of KANSAS feel when he shows up. The eccentric touches like sax, violin and keys work MOST of the time...not all of the time. I thought the clean female vocals didn’t add that much, but they were were sparsely used.
While each song is distinct, they very much sound like they belong together in a coherent fashion. The album is very compact and it doesn’t wear you out listening to it, unlike CHANGELING and that ilk. AZURE EMOTE has actually been a band for almost 20 years. Now might the time for their avant-garde version of death metal.
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