Listening to Aurora by Lathe of Heaven feels like stepping into a dimly lit goth club, where time no longer matters and the past merges with the present. The post-punk four-piece doesn’t just reference their influences—they reshape them, creating songs that are at once melodic and aggressive, dreamy and dangerous, yet somehow entirely organic.
A strong romantic feel runs throughout the album, amplified by poetic and heavy lyrics that read like fragments of nocturnal dream journals, but the music never drifts into softness; there’s always a volatile edge just beneath the surface. The title track (which is set in a dystopian future where Earth is long abandoned due to nuclear fallout) feels like the record’s beating heart—an expansive, deeply affecting piece that manages to be both urgent and elegiac.
Together, all these qualities make Aurora something really-really special: an album that channels the ghosts of the past while speaking with startling clarity to the present, glowing with a natural intensity and musical beauty from beginning to end. To arrive at a sound this confident, cohesive, and emotionally charged so early on is rare, and it marks Lathe of Heaven as one of the finest bands around.
Stream below and buy the LP here, out now via Sacred Bones Records.
Acute Pop 