Boasting a very cold and depressing album cover ( “Eiger” is conceptually focused on the 3967-metre mountain of the same name in the Bernese Alps. Since 1935, at least 64 climbers have died attempting to conquer the Eiger’s sheer, ice-covered north face which has earned it the nickname of ‘Mordwand‘ (‘murder wall‘). The album specifically examines an attempt to climb the Mordwand in July 1936 which ended in tragedy, as four young mountaineers succumbed to treacherous conditions and disappeared, presumed caught in an avalanche.), Eiger is  8 songs in 55 minutes, which while still is Aara, conjures up some of their earlier, colder releases, namely their debut So fallen alle Tempel in 2019.

At over nine minutes, the opener, “Die das wilde Wetter fängt” is the longest song and rips along nicely with monstrous blasting and if you’re not a fan of the higher pitched black metal type of vocals, Aara will do nothing to change your mind on that.  For me I have grown accustomed to their sound and style so it fits.  The part at the 4.25 section thumps hard!!  Great rhythm section with this slower paced moment.  It is excellent and has a very strong and heavy feel to it, before some classic Aara atmospherics come in later on with the acoustics.  The thumping beats come in some more with some excellent drum work.  Those black metal melodies are a thing of beauty.  Harmonious, cold, yet emotive.

“Felsensang” has a nice brooding opening which is quite doomy as well.  There is a sadness played with these acoustic moments which are interspersed with the metal.  The light drumming begins to build up for the brutality that ensues as the song thrusts forward into a killer blast.  The vocals are harsh and match the music.  How do black metal singers, who go for those raspy highs, not throw out their voices???  Anyway, the song continues to blast forward with incredible guitar melodies and I love how the song abruptly slows down around the 2.40 mark, then speeds back up.  Aara knows how to do tempo shifts but makes them impactful.  Another one at the 3.17 mark, goes right into an atmospheric acoustic moment, right after the ferocious speeds prior.  This part has a classical flair and those damn guitar melodies right after…I mean Aara may write the best black metal guitar melodies out there folks!!  The moving and emotive riffs are impressive.  Towards the end of the song, with all the blasting metal madness to hear the acoustic guitar over the blast beat, it is a new one for me, and it fits rather nicely.

Turn down those headphones because “Der Wahnsinn dort im Abgrund” has no atmospheric build-up.  Goes straight for the gulliver with monstrous blasting, right out of the starting gates.  And I mean this moment goes on for a long time.  Over a minute, before there are some drum rolls and a classic galloping metal beat takes us back to a time of yore.  The double bass drums over this section are terrific.  This opening segment is one of the most intense Aara experiences, I might add.  The song slows down and ushers in atmospherics and then right back into the intensity.  The slower portion, towards the end with that main guitar riff, is excellent.  Heavy stuff.

Eiger is excellently produced and Aara are writing machines.  I do not think they play live/tour, so it gives them a chance to pretty much release an album every year.  However, there is no drop off in quality in writing, ability, song structure, or production.  The albums never seem rushed and that is a testament to a band focused on their musical style and as musicians.  Highly commendable.  This is yet another stellar release from Aara, one of the leaders in the current black metal scene!!

Triade III: Nyx is their fifth album and in their short existence since 2018 they have also released 2 ep’s along with these full-length albums.  The majority of their output has been released during the pandemic and this album is the third and last of the album trilogy based on a gothic novel “Melmoth the Wanderer” by Charles Maturin.  The band creates many emotive melodies and Aara are getting better and better with each album and have come a long way since their 2019 debut: So fallen alle Tempel.

The band does write rather long songs and just like the previous albums, you will get a limited amount of songs, but they are packed with TONS of extraordinary black metal sounds, harmonies, and melodies and drenched in emotive atmosphere.

6 songs in 41 minutes, “Heimgesucht” opens the album and is the longest track at eight-and-a-half minutes.  Opening with some acoustic atmosphere, the song gets right into the blasting with some excellent guitar harmonies and guitar solos simultaneously over the blasting and the double bass is pummeling over the mid-paced moments.  Vocals do not come into the picture until two-and-a-half minutes have passed.  If you’re not a fan of the higher, shrieking black metal vocals then these gents may turn you off.  For me, these vocal tones fit the music.  Although the band is emotive and creates a lot of atmosphere-at times there is a stark coldness to their sounds, which makes the higher-register vocals blend in quite well.  There are plenty of screams over the blasts, or to signal a blast beat and the harmonies on this song are simply breathtaking.  And the band is heavy as well.  The rhythm guitar played under the harmonies are strikingly heavy.  Around the 5 minute mark the song gets into some mid-paced heaviness and I swear that double bass sound will tear your body in half in 0.0 seconds.  Terrific way to open the album.

You cannot even catch your breath when the holy shit moments happens immediately with the second song – “Emphase der Seelenpein”.  No slow build-up, no atmospheric intro – just straight into the blast beat which is tight AF.  After about a minute of high velocity black metal, the song slows down and the atmosphere comes in with more guitar harmonies and vocal shrieks from a hellacious cavernous blackhole.  The harmonies, over the blast beats, are incredibly catchy and the song brings forth some acoustic elements too.  Check out some of the drum rolls too – they are on point, well-placed and tight. Very snappy and sharp. The blast part returns and there is so much going on with the blasting, harmonies and tempo shifts.

Aara loves erupting out of the starting gates a lot on this album and  “Des Wanderers Traum” is no exception as the blast starts out of the starting gates.  This moment sounds a bit too samey to “Emphase der Seelenpein”, but alas they mix it up with some mid-paced rumbling heaviness with a lot of atmospheres, early on, around the two-minute mark.  The song gets back to the blasting, soon thereafter.  “Edo et Edam” ends the album, and the song ends very atmospherically and calmly, and serenely.  The band ends the album very strongly, just as they opened the album – strong.  This last song incorporates more tempo shifts and blasts and they slow it down a bit too.  This song needs to be in their live setlist, for sure.

Aara’s Triade III: Nyx is a damn killer black metal album.  Make no mistake the band uses a lot of melody and harmony, but is fairly brutal with the high-octane blasting that is going on all over the place.  I will say, I would like to hear some slower passages work themselves into the songs and stay longer than they do.  It’s like Aara are saying ok, enough of that time to rip into a blast again. And I am not even suggesting it’s done all the time, however when the band gets into those slower, atmospheric moments, they break up the chaos that surrounds other parts of the songs, but they do not stick around long enough.

Other than that the production is great, the use of keyboards adds a lot of depth to the overall sound.  The album cover seems to evoke a path going somewhere dark and potentially evil, but the beacon of light, from the lamppost, maybe says otherwise. It also ties into the band’s second album, from 2020 En Ergô Einai, not part of this trilogy, but the building light sconces tie into this a bit, imo.  All in all, Aara play some of the best atmospheric and emotive black metal out there and this is killer.

Of course, you will only enjoy this as much as me if you really like the shriller melodic black metal stylings of say Vallendusk, Woods of Desolation, Sühnopfer, Vindland, Vvilderness, Ghost Bath and more recently,  fellow Swiss duo Fluisteraars, Bâ’a and Glaciation and one time label mates (Naturmacht) Marrasmieli. Super layered,melodic, crisp, some times despondent black metal delivered in a mostly 8/8 pace with distant hawkish shrieks and some sparsely church-y choirs all come together for a enthralling if painfully short 33 minute treatise on atmospheric black metal perfection.

The 5 songs (between 5 and 9 minutes long), mostly get right to it other than a couple of short intros, and all deliver swirling, shimmering tremolo picked harmonies at largely breakneck speed, with just a few slower majestic segues here and there. The production appears to have beefed up from the rather thin debut, making for a more bombastic overall sound, and the hymnal choirs, though not used a whole bunch do add some regal austerity to the proceedings as heard on “Telôs”.

But every track is a simply killer, completely mesmerizing delivery of the style. I mean opener “Arkanum” has killer melodies galore throughout , sprightly 5 minute mark of “Stein Auf Stein” is simply gorgeous, “Aargesang (Aare II)” is furiously harmonic, “Entelechie” is more controlled and closer “Telôs” uses the choirs (which seemed more utilized on the debut and which I wish were used more) to great effect, with a super peppy late song jaunt to boot, adding to an  already phenomenal song.

While Marrasmieli’s  Between Land and Sky is a shoo in for my year end list, En Ergô Einai will certainly be in the conversation as the year draws to a close.