Aurora K - 11th Hour

(self-released) www.angelfire.com/pop/aurorak

Finnish hard rock band with a blonde supermodel up front- of course, with these Finns and their Goddamn cheekbones, that's kind of like saying "American street punk band with a short haired tattooed guy up front", but I thought it was worth mentioning. This is their latest single, and finds the band settling in to a fist clenching rock hard sound somewhere in the Black Label Society school of 80's crunch, tempered somewhat with the particularly Finnish tendency towards gothy melancholy. The b-side is a power ballad, complete with bombastic chorus and November Rain piano. I'm not sure if the eventual full length will involve thunderstorming metal or atmospheric romantic goth, but you know, either way is all right with me, since the singularly named Katriina sings like a sad angel and looks like a metal goddess, and if there's a better recipe for success than that, well then, I'll buy a case of it. Fans of European melodic metal, particularly those of you that have outgrown all that trolls and dragons nonsense, check this ever-evolving band out.