(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by The Ritual Aura from Australia.)

It’s been an amazing experience to be a small part of what NCS has to offer. I feel like this site is frequently well ahead of many others when it comes to highlighting and exposing talented new bands. It’s a good feeling when this happens, and it seems to been the case for The Ritual Aura, an Australian act I started covering here at NCS in February of last year when we premiered their debut single “Time-Lost Utopia”. We then went on to premiere a second song, “Erased In The Purge”, before their 2015 debut, Laniakea, dropped. While it wasn’t at NCS, earlier this year I also helped the band premiere two new songs from their upcoming album Tæther over at Metal-Injection.

But it’s nice for things to come full circle, so here we are at NCS with another song premiere for the band, this time for a sweet new jam called “Te-no-me”.

photo by DarkSpiritPhotography

As for what “Te-no-me” has to offer, it’s a whirlwind of technical death metal fury supplemented by backing synth layers to add that little something extra to the experience. From what I’ve heard of Tæther so far, the band seem to be setting the stage for an album with a larger focus on progressive death metal than their prior album, with today’s single coming across as almost a melding of the two; it’s an aggressive number but also has a strong proggy vibe to it which slowly builds and develops. At times, “Te-no-me” seems strongly reminiscent of Planetary Duality-era The Faceless, and that’s not a bad thing.

Between the killer riffs and leads, the hefty NS Stick bass presence that adds a massive punch, given the nature of the guitar-like instrument, the monstrous vocals courtesy of what I can only assume is a demon, and the punishing drum-work, “Te-no-me” has a lot of interesting performances on display. When taken together, it makes for the kind of tech-death where each member’s contribution lines up and locks in to create a singular demolishing force — one which should in theory cause you to bang your head involuntarily, and if it doesn’t, I don’t know what will.

Since “Te-no-me” is now the fourth song from Tæther to be released to date, it’s becoming quite clear to myself and others that this album will most likely easily top their debut. And with any luck, Tæther will vault them to greater heights and make even more people take notice of the awesome music they create.

Tæther is set for release this November through Lacerated Enemy Records. The three previous singles from the album can be heard through the Bandcamp page listed below.

https://www.facebook.com/theritualaura/?fref=ts

https://theritualaura.bandcamp.com/