Aurora from Denmark released a hell of an album earlier this year. This album, "Eos", are one of the few albums who have got full marks in our review sections. We contacted Aurora for an update.
1. Please give me biography of Aurora.
- The band was formed in 1996 under the name Aurora Borealis ’Childhood Memories’ Demo recorded Aug. 96 with Jacob Hansen in Aabenraa studio. Ethereal Goddess from the demo released on ’Extremity Rising II’, a compilation CD from SE. In Autumn ´97 we were signed to Serious Entertainment for a full-length CD and also changed our name to Aurora. Summer 97 the limited 7" EP ’I’ll Cry Alone’ was released on Prutten Records. Debut CD released on SE 1. March 1998.
2. Who did what in Aurora under the recording of "Eos" ??
- As usual it was the Aurora line-up: Claus Frølund, all male vocals. Allan Iversen, rhythm & acoustic guitar. Thomas Broberg, lead, rhythm & acoustic guitar. Carsten Terp, bass and Morten G. Sørensen, drums. And of course the guest vocalist, Lene Lunde.
3. Your album "Eos" was released some time ago. Please tell me more about the recording of this masterpiece. What has happend after the release of this album ?
- Eos was recorded in Aabenraa Studio from June to September ’97 and this was our third project with Jacob Hansen in that studio. It was quite an experience... We took our first shots in the studio in June – starting out with 8 days. There we got the cuetrack and drums recorded and also the rythm sections.
The accoustic parts and brutal vocals was done in two days in July. The female and clean male vocals was done along with the solo-parts in a weekend in August. It was all mixed together in October. The cover was done by ourselves (Thomas is educated in graphic design) in about 2 months. The
image-material was delivered by the Danish artist David Michaelzcyk. We have received a lot of interest and attention to our debut-CD and a lot of good reviews.
Recently we have recorded 4 new tracks for a MCD. Also to be released on SE later this year. Finally we are also planning our second album (also on SE !).
4. As I wrote in my review of "Eos"; the album is a perfect combination of Death Metal and Progressive Rock. How much have you been influenced by Progressive Rock and which Progressive Rock bands has influenced you and Aurora ?
- That’s depending on how you define Progressive Rock – many Rock bands has been a great
influence to us – as well as the Death Metal has been a influence to our music. We all have common lust for playing metal – what you get is Aurora! What we mean is, that we didn’t plan to play a specific genre – it’s actually very hard for us to define – so we call it Trancendental Metal – but in the
end it’s all up to the listener.
5. The rhythm section are using Jazz rhythms structures on "Eos". That is also something Minas Tirith from Norway do. It seems like Aurora is a very open minded band. What is your views on musical labels like Death Metal, Progressive Rock etc. etc. ??
How would you define Aurora ??
- Yes, you could call Aurora open minded – but Jazz ?? We never thought of it in that way...
We like to experiment with the compositions, try new combinations etc. Musical labels are great – just make your own... In fact they suck – but what can you do ??? The definition of Aurora ? Well, it’s the mixture of the feelings and ideas of the five of us – we like to call it Trancendental Metal as we said earlier.
6. You use female vocals as one of the vocals on "Eos". What is your view on female vocals in metal ?
- It gives a little extra touch to the music – as long it’s not to dominating. Some people might think it’s a bit of a cliche-kind-of-thing – but anyway, it gives that extra contrast to the male vocal.
The Gathering is a consistent metal band with female vocals – and it’s done with perfection. There’s a lot of bands who have used female vocals with success – and others not so successfully...
7. What is your view on the metal scene in Denmark ?
It doesn’t look so good. There’s a lot of people trying to accomplish something for the scene, booking big bands, festivals etc. – but it’s short on the crowd. There’s also many bands around, working their buts of in their rehearsing rooms. Only a few is lucky to get a record deal – a lot of bands
have to finance their releases themselves.
8. Serious Entertainment is a new label for me. Please tell me more about this label.
- We are sharing label with some very cool bands, Illdisposed, Frozen Sun, Autumn Leaves and Mercenary to mention some of the Danish bands. Then there’s also Without Grief from Sweden and Pyrexia from the states... We like to work with Jacob, he’s cool in the studio and a good producer.
SE has also released three compilation CD’s - Extremity Rising Vol 1, 2 and 3 - with both pro and amateur bands - Aurora was featured on the second CD. And that gave us a lot of attention...
9. What is your view on politics, religion and philosophy ?
Of course we all have our opinions about those subjects, but as a band we don't take a political or religious point of view - we just play !!! About philosophy, here's Claus' opinion (He's the philosopher in the band!!): Well, every man has or should have his own opinion to such tremendous serious themes as politics, religion and philosophy !! Mankind often forget to express them selves in words and feelings which they have experienced either physically or metaphysically because they are fragile in their minds.. What many people ignore is their own inner voice which tells what is right and what is wrong. Instead they seem to follow the stream which lead to a continuos mimic of the generally point of view of mankind and that's no good ?!!!
10. What is Aurora's future plans ??
As said, we've recently been in the studio for some recording. And again later in November we start the recording for our second album. And in between we plan to play a lot of gigs... And we hope to get the opportunity to play live for the metal-crowd in Scotland.