No Dawn
“Dark Aura”
2013
Having seen the video for the song Exit Sanity I was extremely excited to hear this album. Exit Sanity showcased some amazing drumming with two distinct speeds of blast beats, the beginning riff featured and extremely fast and aggressive blast. Then during the next segment a slower but powerful blast. Musically it reminded me of classic Morbid Angel, extremely dark riffing that was punishing. The vocals were higher pitch than traditional Death Metal adding an element that set them apart a bit. Unfortunately Exit Sanity is by far the stand-out track on the album, one thing that doesn’t do the band justice is the production of the album itself, particularly the drums, on the mid paced blasts the sound really does an injustice to his playing as he doesn’t do a lot of fills and ultimately makes the drums sound rather simple. The opening track begins as a what seems like a dark intro, but it eventually builds into a complete song, it starts the album off in a very symphonic way, even the vocals at the beginning are clean and eerie and brings comparisons to GHOST, but then the song gets going into an all out Death/Thrash song, and it is here where the flawed production especially with the drums is glaringly noticeable. At one point I thought they might be poorly programmed drums because the blast is so repetitive and simple, and the sound gives a very synthetic feel. The rest of the instrumentation and vocals are produced quite well, the guitars have bite and the vocals are perfectly set in the mix. The album is solid from start to finish, even if it is offering very little new. It is predominantly death metal based, with a vocalist that transitions seamlessly between heavy Death Metal growls and vocals that are more in the Black Metal vein. Plenty of the songs have a good amount of speed and slower heavy parts, so the band does show some promise, they need to have the drums mixed better and perhaps try treading into new territory, as what they are doing has been done. Overall a solid effort that is good but not perfect.
Tracklist:
1. Preludium Ex Chaos
2. Dark Aura
3. Terror Divine
4. Exit Sanity
5. The Human Curse
6. Inevitable Downfall
7. God ov Torment
8. The Voice ov the Abyss
9. Hail the Burden
10. The Final Departure
https://www.facebook.com/nodawnofficial
Members:
Andreas Bruheim – Guitars
Paal André Sandnesmo – Guitars
Ludvik Brandsegg – Bass
Tor Erik Simensen – Vocals
Kent Skjeflo – Drums
Rating: 6 out of 10
~Lance Gifford of BITTER PEACE