ALUDRA is a two-piece, American Black Metal band hailing from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They're fairly new to the scene, releasing their first single in 2018. Since their inception, they've released two full-length records as well as one EP. Their most recent record, "Mass Stellar Graves", was released on August 30th of this year independently.

ALUDRA's "Mass Stellar Graves" is a total of six tracks that clock in just a few seconds short of 37 minutes, but it feels a lot longer than it actually is. This record could benefit from some serious editing. Six of the tracks are over five minutes which leads to fatigue on each song apart from the stand out piece "Imprisoning Light", which also happens to open the record and is the shortest song coming it at four minutes even.

One thing that I did want to point out is track 3, "Sagittarius A*". When the vocals blend in with the guitars around the minute and a half mark, it sounded familiar. So familiar I had to stop the song and really think on where I'd heard the sounds before. Then it hit me, the blend sounds surprisingly similar to the intro music of the cartoon "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" when the bats fly out at the start.

Track 5, "Black Void Damnation," is the longest track on the record. If you like your black metal resembling BURZUM, look no further. This track sounds as if it could be a leftover piece from the first few BURZUM records. The major problem I have with this track is its length. As a "raw Black Metal" band, I don't see the point in having songs over nine-minutes long. The song drives into a repetitiveness that I found exhausting which is a common theme I had with this record unfortunately.

Overall, I didn't find the record super exciting. There's some interesting instrumental work throughout that made me feel like I was playing a "Castlevania" video game on my Nintendo. It definitely adds to the spooky factor but the repetitive, lackluster songwriting left much to be desired. It's also a rather difficult record to listen to based on production. It sounds muddied which is a common theme with Black Metal in general. It is a gripe I have with the entire genre, even as a fan. I get it, you want to be edgy, but can we not find any equipment that doesn't say Fisher-Price on it to record on?