Whales And Aurora - The Shipwreck

When I first looked at the album cover I was intrigued by the black and white photo of a ship sailing on rough ominous seas. Once I heard the first track, “Refused Recounting Words” I felt that the album cover captured the essence of the music. The riff in the song is heavily distorted and builds up slowly until a strong chord is struck creating a shock to my ears. Along with the powerfully distorted guitars the drumming adds tremendously to the songs overall sound. The lead singer starts singing and I am taken back by the raw aggressive emotion. Another great part about the song is the band slows down tempo to create a mellow doom feel and it contrasts nicely with the heavy thundering parts. The second song “Achieving the Unavoidable” is a long piece where I am hooked from beginning to end. This song’s mellow part comes in the beginning where there is a strong focus on the drums. I enjoy the drummer’s timing and his rhythms are well planned out with the bass guitar. In the middle section there is this synchronized crash of all the instruments while the singer is screaming over the noise.

The third song, “The Aground Hard-Ship” is my favorite song on the album. The song is just composed of a heavily distorted guitar hitting chords with plenty of reverb. This song reminds me of the drone music created by SunO))) and Earth. The guitar hits a coupe notes and the feedback echoes from my speakers creating a grand distorted atmosphere. I like songs that are simple, but bring forth a drone quality that takes me by surprise. On the song, “Awaken by the Aurora” the band slows the music down and incorporates a piano which creates a very mellow vibe. The song is calm and creates a comforting atmosphere with a classic progressive rock quality. Another song I enjoy on this album is, “A New Awareness.” This song does a great job summing up the powerful emotions created on the first two songs and is more triumphant instead of dark. There is this part when the singer is singing and the backing instruments are building up while he increases his growls. The way the band finishes off the album with the last song “Floating on Calm Waters” is a perfect wrap up of this intense musical journey. On this song the listener can look back on all the heavily distorted aggression while hearing a calm rhythm that is like ship floating a still intact after a massive storm.

Whales and Aurora’s brilliant concept album “The Shipwreck” ties in very powerful lyrical and musical themes to create a solid release. Now the growls can become hard to understand and sometimes seem a bit overdone, but I believe they work well with the heavily produced explosion of noise. Also, I understand people do not like too much distortion, but the sound creates some great musical atmospheres that are extremely heavy. All the songs on this album are created with great consideration to detail and work together to make a captivating album. I highly recommend this album to progressive doom metal fans that enjoy noise that takes them on a journey through rough seas. Trust me at the end of this album you will think that you have just finished a novel even though you did not read any words. A strong release and can’t wait to hear more from these guys in the future.