"World Shapers" is worth a good listen if you are already familiar with these Death Metal legends from Maryland. Ron Vento has gotten the band together to release this otherworldly album called "World Shapers".

This is the kind of Sci-Fi infused Death Metal you're probably used to by now. "World Shapers" has a really elaborately constructed set of lyrics and concepts gone over in this album. Essentially (spoiler alert...?) its about a demonic race of aliens that play around with genetic material as if it were Play-Dough to create mutant subspecies that they engineer as slaves to build worlds all across the network of galaxies in the universe. But then this new race of Genetic Mutants rebel and revel in their own primitive indulgences which leads to this alien race to eradicate them mercilessly. Cool!

However, if you didn't read the lyrics, none of this stuff is relevant to music, however that storyline may appeal to you. I was kind of expecting this album to cater to other Metal music that likes to delve into Science Fiction themes which in turn morphs the genre into more melodic and progressive realms. This album does nothing of the sort. There's no 8 string slams or technical finger tapping guitar wanks or clean vocal passages. AURORA BOREALIS loves Death Metal too much to incorporate any of these styles into their songwriting. Don't worry, Death Metal purists, your genre has been preserved!

What you should expect to hear are a lot of heavy and ear-splitting drum rhythms layered under Blackened Metal shredding. Not too many flashy solos and the ones included aren't much to mention. The vocals are nasty and vicious screams that I could see fit in with any Grindcore band and fit perfectly with the music. I think since this band has been pumping out Death Metal since the early nineties, they have definitely nailed down the perfect production tone for this album.

Overall, the album isn't bad at all and when you observe the talent and work put into this album, its hard no to be supremely impressed by what everybody has done with "World Shapers". But this album doesn't really make itself memorable for me. There are a couple of great songs on here like "Induced Mutation" and "This Is The Way They Choose To Die" but nothing else really sticks out. I cannot give this album a fully motivated recommendation but perhaps older fans of Aurora Borealis will find this more memorable than I did.

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