Azure Emote - Cryptic Aura (2025)

Delivering one of the craftiest and weirdest Death Metal releases of 2025, today we have Azure Emote with their fourth full-length release “Cryptic Aura”. Featuring ten tracks and over 42 minutes of madness, this release combines lush instrumentation with pummeling drumming and playful riffing. Led by Mike Hrubovcak (vocalist of Imperial Crystalline Entombment), and featuring Mike Heller on drums and Pete Johansen (ex Sins of Thy Beloved) in violins, the band’s music is quite diverse and very engaging, with plenty of interesting details to discover in subsequent spins.

Blasting away with “Into Abysmal Oblivion”, the band’s monster drumming leads the way into crafty tempo changes with masterful guitar leads from Ryan Moll and the lush violins of Pete Johansen, creating a very unique atmosphere. Slowly building up the madness, tracks like “Insomnia Nervosa”, and “Aeons Adrift” perfectly balance some crunch Death Metal antics with over the top atmospherics, all while creating a very chaotic and consuming vibe. The band excels in creating very busy soundscapes that are cohesive and engaging, while being very exploratory as well.

With interesting mixture of elements from bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Cannibal Corpse, and even some Technical Death Metal chops, tracks like “Bleed With The Moon”, “Defiance Infernus” and “Provoking the Obscene” also sprinkle atmospheric brilliance to an already very layered mix. Azure Emote excels in creating complicated and yet intricate songs that flow naturally, weaving back and forth aggressive onslaughts and dreamy atmospherics and engaging melodic passages, as “Feast of Leeches” and “Return to the Unknown” showcase.

Closing with the weird atmospheric outro, “Writhing Lunacy”, the band has managed to release a very challenging album that is masterfully crafted, very polished, and has high replay value. Mixing stuff from all kinds of genres into this Avant-garde nightmarish amalgamation is quite effective and makes “Cryptic Aura” one of the most complete and yet chaotic releases of 2025. If you are looking for masterfully crafted Death Metal, heavy on the weirdness and quirkiness, you can’t go wrong with Azure Emote.

Label: Testimony Records

Release:July 25th, 2025

Genre: Avant-garde Death Metal

Country: International