Label : BadMoonMan Music
Review by Vard Aman
Aut Mori are from the city of Yaroslavl, about 250km North East of Moscow, and were formed in 2009 by three ex-members of Doom Metal band Auto-de-Fe (other ex-Auto-de-Fe members spawned the band Sea of Despair). Aut Mori play a style of atmospheric Gothic Doom Metal, similar in a lot of ways to Auto-de-Fe, but with a very strong Draconian influence. Actually, to best describe Aut Mori’s sound on “Первая Слёза Осени” think of a Russian version of a more atmospheric and symphonic Draconian but with less oomph (something along the lines of “She Dies”). It sounds like a promising prospect, doesn’t it? Well, it is! Also, while I have your attention regarding Draconian, I should just mention that the guest drummer on “Первая Слёза Осени” is none other than Draconian‘s Jerry Torstensson, who was also responsible for the mastering of the album; and the guest violinist, Olof Göthlin, was also responsible for the violins on “A Rose for the Apocalypse”.
The strength of this band and this album stems from a combination of powerful and sombre guitar melodies, beautiful choral-like female vocals (provided on this album by Nati Chitadze), and the swirling atmospheric symphonics, all coming together to conjure dark and stirring soundscapes of empty and sombre epicness and beauty – the last person on Earth standing, staring out from a hilltop over silent mist-filled forests, embracing both the endless beauty and the loneliness, succumbing to and embracing the triumphant doom, the epic emptiness and its haunting beauty, and…. erm, sorry, well played Doom Metal just does that to me. This combination runs relentlessly throughout the album as Aut Mori seldom stray from the path they have carved through their bleak soundscapes, so don’t expect too much variety from song to song; and in this case it is not a bad thing at all – if it’s a style that you just can’t get enough of. Some songs do stand out as particular highlights: “Небо”, “Мой Вечный Дождь”, “Элегия Безмятежности”, and especially “Жди”. The one, and perhaps the only criticism I have is that the male growls are a bit on the muddy and muffled side; except on “Элегия Безмятежности” where they sound awesome. On the production side all I have to say is that it is very safe for you to assume that Jerry Torstensson knows what he’s doing and that he does it very well.
So what more is there to say? If you like Doom Metal, especially the melancholic atmospheric side of Doom Metal, then your collection simply would not be complete without this album in it. If you don’t, well, nothing to see here – just emptiness…. bleak, beautiful, soaring, epic emptiness.
Rating – 92/100
Tracklist
- Первая Слеза Осени [Pervaya Slyoza Oseni – The First Tears of Autumn]
- Моя Песня – Тишина [Moya Pesnya – Tishina – My Song – Silence]
- Небо [Nebo – The Sky]
- Прощай [Proschay – Farewell]
- Мой Вечный Дождь [Moy Vechniy Dozhd’ – My Eternal Rain]
- Жди [Zhdi – Wait]
- Элегия Безмятежности [Elegiya Bezmyatezhnosti – Elegy of Serenity]
- На Сцене Осень [Na Stsene Osen’ – Autumn on Stage]
Line Up
- Nati Chitadze – Vocals
- Evgeny Chepur – Vocals
- Stepan Sorokin – Guitars
- Alexey Chernyshov – Guitars
- Ilya Ryabtsov – Bass
- Maria Sorokina – Keyboards