That a German promotion company needs to send me a CD with a Danish band before I get to know it tells you a bit about the frequency with which I visit underground gigs in my own country! Not very often! Also, I don't have the time to surf the net for hours to detect everything that moves in this country or abroad. Therefore it's still possible for me to receive nice surprises like this in my (physical!) mailbox.
And this Copenhagen band's debut CD is a nice surprise, even if 'nice' doesn't really seem like an appropriate term to use for something as cathartic as 'Prisoners of the Sun'. As you can see from the style definition above, I've had a hard time pinpointing what this is, even if you probably catch my drift if you go by what I put there. There is a lot of black metal ethos in this music, and at the same time elements of the anguish of sludge, even some death metal.
I like the fact that I can't immediately frame this five-piece. There's fast stuff, there's mid-tempo stuff, there are screams, there are growls, there's a deep, hard groove, there's also the tearing riffs of black metal. There are lyrics in English, but, lo and behold! also lyrics in Danish. Nice little feature.
There's a kind of introvert desperation inherent in the music of Ajuna, but at the same time there is in fact accessibility and an approach which leaves you thinking that this band would be open to do whatever the hell they please and set no limits for themselves. They have a special touch, and I honestly can't exactly put my finger on what it is, but I like what they do. I'm intriqued, try it out and see what you think.
