Reeking Aura – Blood and Bonemeal
Release Date: 29th July 2022
Label: Profound Lore Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Death-Doom Metal.
FFO: Witch Vomit, Gatecreeper, Void Rot, Artificial Brain, Suffocation.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Blood and Bonemeal is the pummelling debut full length from New York six-piece Reeking Aura. The album, which comes out on July 29, features a three-guitar attack courtesy of ax-wielders, Ryan Lipynsky, Rick Habeeb, and Terrell Grannum. With all three guitarists sharing lead duties, you’d think that the songs might suffer from overcrowding, but the three deftly split the time in the spotlight and churn out the punishing brand of death-doom that all the cool kids are clamoring over these days. Joining Lipynsky, Habeeb, and Grannum are bassist Tom Anderer and drummer Sam Shereck, as well as vocalist extraordinaire, Will Smith, whom we last saw releasing one final album as the man behind the mic for fellow death dealers Artificial Brain.
Reeking Aura previously released a three song EP where they showed off their talent for writing heavy-as-nails death-doom guaranteed to incite a riot in the pit. On Blood and Bonemeal the guys from New York stick to what they do best and churn out seven more tracks of death-doom that are sure to get the pit circling. Leaning a little heavier on the death metal side of things, Reeking Aura have an old-school vibe that shines through on all of the tracks, but especially on Seed the Size of a Spider’s Eye and Grublust. The production duties were handled by the venerable Colin Marston who keeps the mix up-front and in your face. And for those like me who thought Smith’s devastating gutturals should have been brought up in the mix on the last Artificial Brain album, on Blood and Bonemeal, his vocals are deep as always and blended perfectly.
Old school death-doom is having quite the resurgence these days, and Reeking Aura deserves to be smack dab in the middle of the discussion. With a heaviness that knows no bounds and vocals that register on the Richter scale, Reeking Aura are poised to make big waves in the death metal scene for years to come, and Blood and Bonemeal is their coming out party!
(5 / 5)
