Auri - 'II: Those We Don’t Speak Of' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Those We Don't Speak Of

2. The Valley

3. The Duty Of Dust

4. Pearl Diving

5. Kiss The Mountain

6. Light And Flood

7. It Takes Me Places

8. The Long Walk

9. Scattered To The Four Winds

10. Fireside Bard

This is different… Auri comes across as very ethereal music 'II: Those We Don’t Speak Of' is full of long droning keyboards and classical passages. I’d say it’s definitely an album to play if you want to kick back and drift off (that’s not to say it’s boring). The overall impression I got for this album was it sounded like a film score, there are so many symphonic movements and often songs end abruptly.

'II: Those We Don’t Speak Of' has Celtic influences especially with its use of Uilleann pipes and choir like vocals, the main thing that frustrated me with this album was too many times just as you expect a song to start going somewhere (after a decent build up) your met with silence and realise the track has ended – it’s really frustrating.

If you let the album in and lie back listening it doesn’t take very long to picture yourself flying over wide open vistas, mountains and horses running free – or at least it did for me ha, ha (some of the music reminded me of music from the game The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of time).

Although this album is being released by Nuclear Blast it isn’t Metal in anyway. The only association really is because of Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen. I’ll admit I looked up a bit of information on this album and I wasn’t expecting much as it’s not really what I’d normally listen to. One of the great things about doing reviews is getting to stumble across albums you’d never have listened to (especially if it opens your eyes to something new or different).