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Review:
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Website info: This year is the 10th anniversary of The
Aurora Project . A band which started in 1999 by jamming
out together after playing card-game “Magic The Gathering”,
and which of today still writes their songs exactly like
10 years ago: by having hours of jam sessions. The band’s
debut was released worldwide in 2006 by Dutch record company
‘DVS Records’. It is a concept album dealing with the statement
“I feel, so I exist”. Beyond the band’s performance, the
album featured a story-teller, several guest-performances
and a choir. The album soon got raving reviews from press
all around the world, hailing the band as a “promising new
surprise”. However the band was compared to the likes of
Pink Floyd, Rush, Riverside and Porcupine Tree, the press
found it hard to position TAP’s music and recommended the
band for its ‘unique sound’. After releasing the album,
they got on tour to promote the album. The band got invited
twice (2005 and 2008) for the prestigious Progpower Festival
(NE) and played Symforce (NE) and Deichbrand Festival (GER).
They continued by doing a club tour in Holland and Belgium
with Riverside and Van Den Plas, and the band scored support-slots
for Pain of Salvation, RPWL and Threshold. In 2007 a dream
came true for the band when they played a sold-out Paradiso
Amsterdam, for 1500 people. In 2008 the band went into the
studio to record their second album ‘Shadow Border’. The
record holds seven tracks, including the 17-minute epic
title track. Joost van den Broek, famous for his work for
Ayreon and After Forever, signed for the recording and mixing
credits. The album is recorded in the famous Dutch Excess
studio (Epica, Gorefest) and the album is mastered by the
legendary Bob Katz who received several Grammy’s for his
work in the past. The album was released worldwide 5th May
2009 by the US label ‘The Laser’s Edge’, who successfully
launched acts like Riverside, Zero Hour and Knight Area
in the past. The band will go on a club and festival-tour
in 2009-2010 to promote the album. ***
On their new album Shadow Border the band presents
seven melodic compositions that alternate between Heavy
Prog, neo-prog and symphonic rock with strong guitar work
(lots of howling, sensitive and harder-edged guitar solos
along exciting propulsive riffs), decent English vocals,
a very pleasant keyboard layering and often a huge tension
between the dreamy parts with twanging guitars, soaring
keyboards and emotional vocals and the more bombastic, heavy
and up-tempo parts with powerful guitar leads and sumptuous
keyboards. My highlight is the final epic composition Shadow
Border (almost 17 minutes) that showcases The Aurora Project
in its full splendor: it starts with post-Waters Floydian
guitar work, then a catchy beat with fiery guitar and a
very dynamic rhythm-section, at some moments the atmosphere
is close to prog metal. Then a part with thunderous drums
that support a flashy synthesizer solo, followed by a dreamy
climate with warm vocals and twanging acoustic guitars that
turns into a prog metal atmosphere with impressive choir-Mellotron
eruptions, the final part delivers a howling guitar solo,
lush keyboards and strong drum beats, this is Prog Heaven!
***
What a very professional and wonderful sounding effort
by this Dutch band, I hope it will be discovered by the
many progheads who like dynamic, modern and melodic progrock.
Rating: [3 of 5 Stars!]
Erik
Neuteboom
Progwalhalla.nl
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