Churning liquified scum, rotted waste and freshly yanked undergrowth across the intended germinal bastion ahead New York/New Jersey-based death metal band REEKING AURA‘s second harvest produces time-matured fruiting bodies amidst selective nurture on this smartly honed sophomore full-length album. Within the seedbed where obscure literature, hobbyist agriculture and multi-gen extreme metal interest coalesce ‘On the Promise of the Moon‘ fascinates via its rooting in melodic, brutal and progressive death metal as the quintet find common ground within a dense yet eventful second coming. Consider it a second chapter as much as a refinement of impact from a band notably pulling from decades of experience unto fairly unique sound.

Reeking Aura formed as a sextet back in 2019 between folks associated with a grip of well-known bands (Afterbirth, Unearthly Trance, Grey Skies Fallen, et al.) as they’d conjured a doomed, mid-paced ‘old school’ death metal informed sound for their first EP (‘Beneath the Canopy of Compost‘, 2020). While the style of the band would quickly evolve per some changes in personnel/authorship over the course of time the nature-as-horror thought implied by their lyrical themes persists granting their work unique setting while dialing in various tincture of brutal death weirdness, Scandinavian melodic death melodrama and prog-death musing. This range’d been largely evident on their debut LP (‘Blood and Bonemeal‘, 2022), a pivot beyond what’d been implicated by their EP unto a brutal-yet-melodic ideal. You’ll get the sense that I wasn’t sure how to digest (or even enjoy) that debut upon review while expressing its outlier status as a boon of interest. The path set was unclear but the machine was working between the number of seasoned pros in gear.

With a new rhythm section (folks from Trog) integrated and their gig pared down to a quintet sans songwriter/guitarist Ryan Lipynsky it’d be fair to say that Reeking Aura went into this one intending to consolidate and cooperate as you’ll likely find ‘On the Promise of the Moon‘ a mélange of competing elements woven into melodeath-cohered threads. The melodramatic edge of ‘Blood and Bonemeal‘ persists in this work but the keener-eared among us should be able to identify this sleekened post-pandemic configuration as one more clearly representative of cross-generational fusion, stretching away from their compressed and confined pandemic era voice over the course. You won’t get their most dialed in-the-pocket gear out the gates but by the time “What Only Worms Witness” hits it’ll be obvious enough what separates the previous LP from this one.

The beauteous horror of rot, all of the mortifying stink of subsistence and life’s eternal churn downward is not such a bizarre theme for death metal overall but there is definitely a “disturbed kid killing pets/still listens to ‘Iowa‘” kind of vibe you’ll typically get from the nowadays sub-genre versus whatever poetic, sometimes kinda humorous and horrified treatment given to Reeking Aura‘s gig. Pairing this sensation with an abstract yet sentimental watercolor painting from Ion Carchelan as cover art kinda rights the wheel toward a more serious or at least introspective statement in the process of divining tone and meaning assigned to ‘On the Promise of the Moon‘. This atypical level of curation helps the quintet’s work to stand out, looking like an abstract progressive metal album but sounding like a death n’ roll agnostic melodic death metal band from the mid-90’s remastered.

That is to suggest that much of what Reeking Aura pack into ‘On the Promise of the Moon‘ and its ~32 minute stretch echoes some of the fundamentals expressed via ‘Spectral Sorrows‘ but tightens that idea down to something akin to Intestine Baalism‘s core effect or Amorbital‘s sole LP in general. Some of this observation comes from the juxtaposition of William Smith‘s signature vocal range with melodious sounds but you’ll note heavier inspiration taken (or, expressed) via Scandinavian melodic death metal phrasing this time around. This doesn’t dominate the entirety of the experience, though, as you’ll find prog-death invaginations throughout the full listen (re: refrains on “Gorged Beyond Grudges”) and heavier groove-built pieces beyond but as we roll into “A Forlorn and Frozen Vapor” and especially the nigh Sins of Omission-copped runs of the title track/closer “On the Promise of the Moon” their melodic edge has some clear enough origin. Fans of United States death metal’s reaction to the popularity of melodic death metal in the mid (not late) 90’s should appreciate this aspect of the band’s style.

Otherwise opener “Concrete Basin Bath” rolls a bit of everything out at once, a slow to unwind three minute puncher which finds the surreal guttural yet hot-wheeling sluice of Reeking Aura‘s collective hand ‘ready active off the jump. Rather than speak directly to melodic death outright the aforementioned prog-metal ideas include some post-metallic drift, points of atmospheric fixation which catch the ear on the next few songs (“Gorged Beyond Grudges” esp.) and drive their van away from just one type of venue. Where the album shows up biggest for my taste amounts to whole-hog melodic gesturing be it the ranting fuss of the righteously titled “Manure Like Magma” or the exactingly characteristic crack through “What Only Worms Witness” that is where these folks leave the biggest wound amongst these densely writ, quick pressed pieces. With this in mind I’d felt they’d done well to link up with Dan Swanö for the mix/master here as his sensibilities propel this album’s fairly short run into prime impact.

Although some of the doomed swagger of earlier Reeking Aura has been squashed beneath the wheel of advance this second full-length from the band is nothing if not efficient in reshaping their still-mutating troupe into easier read coherence. The process of mashing up melodic death, brutally source pummel and weirding nox doesn’t yield pop-metal hooks outright but these folks’ve managed enough memorable spots on this record to keep the brain buzzing throughout. I’d typically complain about how brief this one is, a half hour is three quarters of a thought in most cases, but there is enough packed into ‘On the Promise of the Moon‘ that sticking nearby the half hour mark allows whatever available depth it has to breath better on repeated spins. A moderately high recommendation.

---