Dim Aura - The Negation Of All Existence Review

The Negation of All Existence 

Band- Dim Aura
Album- The Negation of All Existence
Origin-  Tel Aviv, Israel
Score- 7.8/10 (Please note that on my personal blog, I will use a 0-10 system with  incremental decimals so the number will reflect my opinion straight of the bat for those in a hurry)

I'm usually very skeptical whenever I get to review a CD from the local scene in Israel. Fact is, what was once a very strong ground for the various forms of extreme Metal has slowly dwindled to a few strong acts and many ultimately forgettable flavor-of-the-moment bands. I see a name that catches my eye, or something that excites, and ultimately sigh as I find out it's nothing more than a Pantera knock off or another run of the mil core band of one sort or another. But every once in a while, a band on their debut release manages to catch that spark to become really interesting. A band manages to make way around all the pitfalls and shitty cliches of the Israeli Metal scene as to surmount the mountain and show that they defied odds by releasing something unique, not only here, but on a global scale.

Dim Aura, the new-ish Israeli Metal maestros have done just that. Without trepidation from Israel's large and powerful Black Metal legacy (early Salem, Tangorodrim and Azazel to name a few...) Dim Aura went on to create something special. Now what do I mean by special? I mean that it goes through a lot of boundaries and mashes a lot of different kinds of Black Metal, at least by the way I look at it. The influences are wide and varied, and this can be heard all throughout the 8 tracks of this album.



The first section of the album is marked by its diversity as well as by its quality. Right off the bat you can notice the organic recording style they went for with this album. This is by no stretch of the imagination early Norwegian Black Metal style recording, but it's also far from other much more polished productions in Black Metal, which marks as a big plus. Right off from Gods of the Undying Darkness and the Golden Tombs you can sense the sense of raw forcefulness the band has. This band is very far away from Magor and Winterhorde's symphonic and melodic Black Metal, this is very grim, gritty, kick you in the face Black Metal that you should show your ID for and get your ears checked before listening to and after.

What I appreciate also it the sense of Punk that is married with some of the tracks of the album. The tortured vocals of Haim "H." Guseinov alongside the midtempo riffery of one Niv "Ferum" Mazkereth come together for a package that is reminiscent of Sweden's Shining or Carpathian Forest , especially on tracks such as Scarred Flesh Supremacy and Black Metal Genocide. This sense of rage is very nicely evened out by the deep sense of grandeur and melancholy on Thus Negating All Existence and Black Aeon.

But again, if Slayer makes a Jazz album, it would still sound like Slayer. Same here, there's hints of Punk, hints of DSBM, and hints of many other genres and sub genres of Black Metal, but in reality what you're getting all together is an uncompromising Black Metal trip. Dim Aura aren't here to play games, and thus, if your familiar with the grim opuses of Horna, early Behexen, Gorgoroth and Taake, you'll know where these guys are coming from.

And in short, there you have it. Dim Aura didn't try to reinvent the wheel, by the sure as hell gave it a bit of a polish, and some nice new rims. It's not revolutionary, and it's none of that new-age "pretty" Black Metal bullshit that is all the rage now. It's fucking honest, it's fucking brutal, and will bleed all the negativity out of you, so make sure to put a pillow on the other side of your head before you pull the trigger.