AURA NOIR – Frankrike – Paris – Le Nouveau Casino

It’s time to taste some Norwegian metal live in France with the ugliest band in the world a.k.a Aura Noir and Kolbotn thrashers Nekromantheon, the latter hitting a stage in Paris for the first time.

French band The Great Old Ones opens the party with a post-back metal that has not much to do here and it just feel like they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not much else to say.

Le Nouveau Casino is a medium size venue in terms of potential attendance for metal concerts. It’s one of the few to host those since La Locomotive, a favorite among both public and artists, closed down. It’s owner, Le Moulin Rouge, got fed up with rich tourists getting scared of the blood drinking, child burning neighbors. The nostalgy is still here but people is fair play, and despite the crisis and the underground Aura of haha… Aura Noir, it’s getting pretty packed before Nekromantheon. People are curious and don’t really know what to expect of those guys from a "village near Oslo" reviving the Thrash metal flame. Lost in translation.

And they won’t be disappointed. Despite important technical problems right from the star (amp?) that resulted in one less guitar for a part of the set, Nekromantheon delivered some serious ass-kicking as usual and it wasn’t obvious that something was missing. Fair play and indulgent, the Parisians noticed the capacity of the new-born trio to not get embarrassed with a minor problem and to go on before the Fransk Dressing turns sour. Short set of 40 minutes that went quick, with the return of Bestial Tormentor towards the end, was more than enough to tickle the necks of the truest and shiest of the audience, and trigger a few fans and moshers to make the pit ventilate and the merch man sell a few of his gems. Guys, come back to Paris, you’ll be expected. Subliminal message: bring Deathhammer.

Aura Noir is one of those band many have seen live or heard, maybe bought an album, but it seems that they never reached the status of a big band and always stayed underground in the extreme metal milieu, despite their potent discography. Big surprise then when the venue is almost full ! Saturday helping, many that would not have come a weekday decided to give it a go.

Not a good start either for Aura Noir that for a couple of songs sounded like a hobo drumming on a garbage bin and two guys playing yukulele. Problem quickly fixed. Aura Noir has never been my cup of karsk on CD but it’s another story on stage. They have not invented anything but they are always efficient and the duo Agressor/Apollyon works great. We got them in good form that nigh, taunting the audience and alternating the role of frontman/sidekick during the whole gig. The five albums were explored, the moshpit exploded and everything ended with a cover of Heaven’s on Fire from you-know-who. Here again, it was almost like the tech problems didn’t happen: the cursed amp stroked again and Blasphemer ditched class for the last quarter.
Snip snap snup, er eventyret ute.