Harpyie
Aurora

Aurora is the new album by German quintet Harpyie, a band that was formed in 2011 and has released four albums before this one. The previous album Anima is said to have been well received by critics and fans alike and this one is supposed to be more politically, religiously and autobiographically than ever before. The cover isn’t more of anything I think, it looks uninteresting but the digipak is nice and the booklet dense, which is good. So what about the music then?

An album that can be described as folk metal or folk rock with lyrics in German and some good dynamics with strings, folkish tones, some really heavy stuff and very strong melodies and some really catchy tracks. They can be compared with countrymen like In Extremo or Nachtgeschrei if you want some bands to reference to. The production is good, the melodies are quite strong and the vocalist fits really well for the music they present. And they do also present and album with good variation and a playing time that feels very sensible, it is a quality production.

A really good album with some excellent music, and I would say that it is without any major flaws, there are always some smaller things that aren’t brilliant but you will have to look hard to find them on this album. I like that they use the German language as it works really well for music of this style. I think the songs are all really good and invites to sing along or just enjoy, the string that open Seemann Ahoi are just excellent but there are other great songs like Inferno, Atlantis, Vendetta, Sternenfeuer to name a few. I really good album that can be played several times over without really growing bored with it.

Aurora is a highly recommended album, and it should really appeal to anyone who enjoys great music. It is one of the finer releases of the year so far, and it is certainly worth checking out or investing in. I don’t see that anyone can really dislike this album, it is great and I am quite sure that I will find a place for it in my record shelf – and it deserves to be in yours as well. A great thing to listen to when you are not outside looking at the aurora borealis, or something similarly exciting.

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