Sometimes when surfing around music websites you find a fledgling band drop an album which completely blows your expectations out of the water. At the end of February, Marseille hardcore upstarts Aurore proved to be one such band with their debut album Sparks.
Starting with classic NYHC style riffage in opener “Run”, you’re immediately exposed to a relentless hardcore assault which takes its cues from classic NYHC, Beartooth and While She Sleeps, particularly through the vocals which are strongly reminiscent of The North Stands for Nothing era Loz Taylor (of While She Sleeps fame). While at times wearing their influences on their sleeves, Aurore still aspire to carve out their own sound with metalcore breakdowns (such as those in “Roller Derby”) and the nu metal style groove of “Cool” making it clear that this band is still exploring potential avenues for their sound, not content to settle down quite so early on anything that could get them pigeon-holed.
Aurore are more than happy to explore their more melodic influences too, with “Holidays” presenting something much closer to clean vocals and introducing the gang chant vocals that will become more prominent later in the album, showing Sparks as something of a progression from blunt-force trauma to a more introspective, sensitive approach. The fact that Aurore can move between the two without it feeling at all forced has to be commended. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the second half of Sparks isn’t without its energy. “Hostile” is a classic hardcore romp while “Whip It!” is the ultimate combination of the different aspects of their sound so far: hard-hitting riffs, high energy verses and a live-show built chorus, with gang chants created for crowd involvement.
The tracks on Sparks are generally quite short, with songs as short as a minute long and “Whip It!” being the longest at 4 minutes. The album as a whole lasts only 25 minutes with a couple of ambient interludes thrown in, making the experience brief but not without impact. Like any good hardcore album, Sparks refuses to outstay its welcome and the interlude tracks aren’t mere padding. “Bathroom” and “We’re All Leaving” provide much needed breaks from the non-stop energy that Aurore possess. However, as mentioned earlier, there are times where they can lean too far into their influences and album closer “Sparks Die Young” is one that can easily be mistaken for an early While She Sleeps song if you’re not already familiar with Aurore’s work.
Stream the album below and follow Aurore on Facebook.
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