Aura Noir "Dreams Like Deserts" Cassette

The legendary 1995 debut assault “Dreams Like Deserts” from the norwegian kings of black/thrash metal AURA NOIR finally, after more than 25 years, again available on limited (400) music cassette.

True norwegian black/thrash metal in the spirit of the 80s!
Not remastered, without bonus songs and in its original layout.
Face the ugly…

This is the first kvlt release of the masters of blackend thrash. You pretty much get what you expect here, pumeling thrash riffs with blasting behind them and black metal creams over the top. A recipie for some really good stuff. Now this isn't Black Thrash Attack but it's close.
The album starts off with "The Rape", which starts slow enough to fool you and then picks up really quickly. The first thing I notice is the clear influence of bands like Sarcofago. Raw and chaotic thrash with a black metal presentation. "Forlorn Blessings To The Dreamking" is the best track on here. It's just vicious through and through and the intro riff is easily one of my favorites ever. "Dreams Like Deserts" follows in the same mold, funny thing about this song is the riff at 1:43 is the EXACT same riff as Destruction's "Bestial Invasion". It's one thing to be influenced by a band but come one guys.
"Snake" is a sloppy mess that recalls Baloff era Exodus. It's more midpaced and is really short, under 2 minutes. That said, it's a nice change up. Speaking of change when listening to "Mirage" in context all I can think of is "um...what?" The song is fast and has alot of punk/hardcore elements. The comlex Sodom worship riffs are replaced by crossover style ones. Another noticable difference are the vocals, they are almost clean! It sounds like a completely different singer. I've heard that Fenriz did the vocals on this track, which would make sense. When they play it live the vocals sounding nothing like the album. To wrap it up this is really the first attempt to play modern(post second wave) black metal with a stong thrash backbone. The result is damn good, while not quite up to what would come. Basically if you like Sodom/Sarcofago style of thrash you'll like this. One part worship, one part something new and this is what you get. Quality material here, but they really came into their own a year later.

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