Album Review: The Brave – Aura (UNFD)

We don’t get to choose the people we fall in love with or the places that mean a lot to us; these things just make sense on a deeper level, they connect each one of us in myriad mysterious ways. And for The Brave, it’s these connections that they wanted to celebrate on second album Aura.

“We all believe in auras,” explains vocalist Nathan Toussaint, “whether it be the auras that surround the people we meet during our travels, or the ones surrounding the places we visit either on tour or in our personal lives. It’s these same auras that draw us back to these places we visit or allow us to develop relationships with new people we meet and connect with along the way. The same applies to the music we write and the aura that it carries with it.”

Formed in Brisbane in 2013, The Brave quickly started turning heads with 2014 EP Endless captured their particular brand of lightning in a bottle with the critically acclaimed breakout debut album Epoch in 2016, which won plaudits worldwide. Aura takes that groundwork and builds on it in striking fashion. It will be released on April 5th 2019 via UNFD.

Based off the auras statement above it may come as a surprise to listeners unaware of what The Brave sound like to learn they deal in melodic metalcore. enthusiastic grooves, heavy breakdowns and bursts of intensive hardcore style fury.

Eleven tracks of creative metal kicking off with Through the Dark, an early power house track that shows off both the melodic and heavy side of The Brave. Technicolor comes next with a bouncier beat that interestingly enough has a bit of the nu-metals about it.

It’s an oddity as Out of Reach and Ethereal are much more focused on the melodic metal side of things. It’s far from the only unexpected moment though as Lost to the Night is really heavy on electronica although it does have some throat shredding vocals too.

Keep things varied, Burn is probably the most chilled track of the album. Not quite a ballad but mellow and sweet none the less. Not exactly an exciting number but the course is corrected once again for the ferocious Above the Clouds.

Unfortunately that’s followed by a track that is just simply bad. The title track is a slow RnB style song that is just so bland and so out of place when sandwiched in between the former and the latter, Desolation. It’s not about the effects in particular as they’re layered throughout but rather how poorly used they are there. It’s just too out of left field.

Thankfully we don’t get anymore surprises as Dragged Down sticks to the formula and is pretty damn catchy before Goodbye closes out with a powerful melodic performance.

The Brave – Aura Full Track Listing:

1. Through the Dark
2. Technicolor
3. Out of Reach
4. Ethereal
5. Lost to the Night
6. Burn
7. Above the Clouds
8. Aura
9. Desolation
10. Dragged Down
11. Goodbye

You can find pre-order links for the album here. Find out more about The Brave by checking out their Facebook Page.