REVIEW: AURA - Deliverance

 

AURA - Deliverance

Spider Rock Promotion

This is the debut album by this Italian progressive rock band, who approach the genre through a contemporary sound, combining the familiar elements of progressive rock with a more modern production and arrangement style. AURA have a good vocalist, while the musicians themselves clearly demonstrate that they know how to handle their instruments. The instrumental performances are competent throughout, and the keyboards deserve particular mention. They are used quite cleverly, adding depth and atmosphere to the compositions without becoming excessive or dominating the other instruments. This is important, since an overemphasis on keyboards can sometimes make progressive rock sound unnecessarily complicated or tiring.

Deliverance is a good album, although I cannot say that it is a particularly outstanding one. The main issue is that the songs do not maintain the same level of quality throughout. Some compositions leave a stronger impression, while others are less memorable and could benefit from more developed ideas. The tracks that stand out for me are "The Eden's Tree", "A Candle's Dream", "The Bridge of Silence" and "The Glorious Day". These songs give a better indication of what AURA are capable of, combining the band's instrumental abilities with more convincing songwriting.

Despite playing progressive rock, AURA generally keep their compositions within reasonable time limits, rather than relying on extended arrangements simply for the sake of displaying their technical abilities. I consider this a positive element, as a progressive rock composition does not necessarily have to be lengthy to be interesting or effective. Nevertheless, the band still needs to work further on its songwriting, developing stronger melodies and more distinctive ideas that will give its music a clearer identity.

In conclusion, Deliverance is a promising debut and a good album that should appeal to progressive rock fans. AURA demonstrate sufficient musical ability and have some interesting moments, but there is still room for improvement, particularly when it comes to the consistency of their compositions. At this stage, I would place them below bands such as ASTRAL TRAVELLER, Canada's MYSTERY and ABARAX, whose work I find more convincing within the genre.

Ioannis Kaskamanidis