In 2009 the Swedish Gothic/Doom Metal band NOX AUREA (in Latin it's 'golden night'), released their debut album entitled "Via Gnosis" showing a promising band with potential. In 2010 the band made a step forward in their career singing a worldwide recording deal with Napalm Records and release their 2^nd brand new studio album "Ascending In Triumph" .

For those that don't know NOX AUREA, the band follows the traditional style and sound of the genre, with their music style being closer to DRACONIAN combing very good male growls and harsh vocals with great female vocals. While listening to each song it is obvious that the band has improved a little bit compared to their previous release. We have slow and mid-tempo melancholic guitar riffs, improved and well-crafted drumming and very good keyboard arrangements that create the proper atmosphere. All of the songs have the typical gothic/doom structure. The only detail that manages to distance them from other bands of the genre is the lyrical subject which is Gnostic in nature and goes far away from the traditional Gothic lyrical themes.The fragile female vocals of Alice Persell are really impressive and the vocal melodies are very well written, fitting perfectly into their music and reminding me of the style of Liv Kristine and Lisa Johansson (of DRACONIAN), but the use of them is limited compared to the male vocals.

However there are some negative aspects. The most important disadvantage of"Ascending In Triumph" is something that was also obvious in their debut "Via Gnosis". The majority of the songs in the album have a duration over 8 minutes and only one song, the instrumental "Emendare", is below 6 minutes. So when you listen to the record in its entity there are times that the stuff becomes predictable and the listener gets tired. While listening to "Ascending In Triumph" I sometimes caught myself losing my focus and started doing or thinking about other stuff rather than fully paying attention to the music. The album simply couldn't keep my attention at all times. It just lacks some really great moments or songs, some surprises in the melodies, more intense melodic changes and some energy that would put the CD into a higher level and would make it in its entity more interesting ,energetic and surprising.

Summing up, "Ascending In Triumph" is a good album, the band has done a really good work in all of the songs, but there are still the above mentioned problems and it lacks some really great moments. NOX AUREA with their new release are continuing to show that with hard work they have the potential and the abilities to create very good material in the future.