Review Summary: Brutality and torment with a hint of melody never hurt anybody.
Melodic death metal is a genre that is hit or miss for a whole lot of metalheads, including myself. Sometimes bands forget the “death metal” part of the genre, and sometimes that works, but a lot of the time the overbearing melody can be a bit too much to handle. Reeking Aura is a band formed by revered death metal vocalist Will Smith, formerly of Artificial Brain and many others, and these guys know how to straight-up riff. As previously mentioned, a lot of bands in this genre tend to piece together generic riffs while focusing solely on the melodic aspect of the music. Well, Reeking Aura isn't one of those bands and their second full-length album,
On the Promise of the Moon, is a huge testament to that.
Much like the Japanese band Intestine Baalism, these guys opt to emphasize the death metal part of the melodic death metal genre. Right off the bat you're hit with tons of melody, but also supreme amounts of brutality that resemble the other bands that Will has been a part of. The things that plague certain bands in this genre is that they have little interest in purely bashing the listeners’ skull in, and thankfully, this album does plenty of that. The album clocks in at just over 32 minutes so it doesn't overstay its welcome by any means. Certain tracks are more melodic than others and then there are tracks that focus solely on death metal carnage.
Take for example the opener, ‘Concrete Basin Bath’. Immediately you see comparisons to the aforementioned Artificial Brain and Afterbirth with hammering drums and riffs that wouldn't sound out of place on the most brutal of death metal albums while still retaining a certain melodic edge of Swedish bands like Arch Enemy or At the Gates. That balance is what drives this entire album towards the greatness that it presents. ‘Gorged Beyond Grudges’, ‘What Only Worms Witness’ and ‘Sifting for Fungal Inheritance (A Mildewy, Acid Mulch)’ follow that same approach of barbaric savagery. Other tracks like ‘A Forlorn and Frozen Vapor’, ‘Manure Like Magma’ and ‘The Cathedrals Calculation’ opt for a bit more melodic tendencies, but never sacrifice that death metal edge that is present throughout.
Honestly, I didn't even know about this band until the other day, and thankfully, some of our faithful mentioned them and got me on the bandwagon.
On the Promise of the Moon is an absolutely pummeling, decrepit death metal album. Will's vocals, of course, are at the top of their gurgling game and the riffs are varied and catchy yet battering all at the same time. This is one of the better death metal albums of 2026 so far and I'm extremely happy that I stumbled upon it when I did. Who says that crypt-like death metal can't have a bit of fun and melody attached to it? Reeking Aura is a testament to that very notion and I'm very excited to see what they do in the future.
