Grandeur "Aurea Aetas" CD (Bonustrack)

Bonus track edition limited to 300 copies. CD is has transparent edges.

Even with a name like Grandeur, leaving no doubt as to where your ambitions lie, starting out small by delivering debut EP "Aurea Aetas" is no mean feat. Especially if you're someone like Erech Leleth, the man behind this Austrian-based BM project, who also has a fair few other active solo BM projects like Ancient Mastery and Narzissus plus two labels Ad Victoriam and Doctrina Carnis. If all these other projects have the energy and fire of "Aurea Aetas", we probably shouldn't worry that Erech Leleth is over-extending himself. From start to finish this EP of four melodic BM songs rages with spiky spitfire guitars, raspy ragged vocals and a defiant punk attitude. The production is clear and clean, allowing the vocals, guitars and percussion to be heard in detail; the contrast behind the general raw grinding guitars and the sparkling lead guitar is notable. The drumming may not be all that remarkable and generally sticks to time-keeping duties but in being low-key allows the guitars to be the stars of this show.
All four songs are not very long - they're all less than five minutes each - but they're packed with riffs that don't repeat often so if you sneeze or blink at the wrong time you'll miss a lot of them. That'd be sad as all songs have so many memorable motifs that would benefit from more repetition than they get. Each succeeding song seems to have better riffs and tunes than the last and my impression is that the last two tracks on this short work "Ultimum" and title track "Aurea Aetas" have the best music. "Aurea Aetas" especially is stuffed with some tremendous melodies and lead guitar flourishes all the way to the end.
Most bands would need a lifetime to get through all the tunes featured on this short work. Indeed after hearing the EP a few times, I'm thinking Erech Leleth could base all his future Grandeur recordings on all the melodies and riffs here and none of those records to come would sound the same. The aggression and energy levels on this EP are immense and the way in which the punk fury suddenly drops into soothing raindrop guitar melody and becomes rousing epic BM thrash on the title track is nothing short of insane.
Just as the EP starts quietly and then erupts in thrashy BM pyrotechnics, so it ends with a decisive bang. What a way to go, leaving your audiences hanging out for more! This really could have been longer, maybe twice as long - but then the EP's impact, precise and succinct, would be a lot less.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...