The Church-Priest=Aura

This is their eighth album from 1992 and the first I bought from this band. I bought it on cassette because that was the only format available then except for the CD which I never bought,blaming it for the demise of the vinyl record. Of course cassettes eventually went away leaving only the CD. This was released on vinyl in 2016 and I bought it as soon as I saw it.All songwriting was now a group effort including new drummer Jay Dee Daugherty(ex Patti Smith Group). Besides being the first record I bought by them it is also my favorite. The swirling guitars of Wilson-Piper and Koppes dominate this record along with their atmospheric sound. All songs are good but “Lustre”,”Swan Lake”,”Mistress”,”Witch Hunt”,and “The Disillusionist” are especially good. The nine and a half minute “Chaos” sounds a little spooky in places. When I saw them in concert I yelled out a request to play “The Disillusionist” but Steve Kilbey said they didn’t play that anymore. On their 30th anniversary tour(three years after I saw them) they played the album in its entirety. After this record Peter Koppes left the band, rejoining in 1997.

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