The Last Aurora Wiki

The Last Aurora is a Singapore instrumental[1] rock band, formed in 2007 in Singapore. The Last Aurora is considered one of the bands responsible for the highlight of the symphonic metal genre in Singapore.

In June 2008, Sarah Cheung Zi Ling was revealed as Chen Yun’s replacement,[4] and in 2009, the band will release a new album The Truth Before The Dawn.[2] However, the band again decided that Sarah Cheung was not suitable for the band, and Chen Yun was once again returned to the band. Pearlyn Tan Shou Hua joined in 2009 as the band manager and art director. The band is currently in hiatus, to support the exams of the band members.

Background information
Origin Singapore
Genre(s)
Instrumental Rock, Classic, Symphonic metal

Years active 2007-Present
Label(s)
Unsigned
Associated acts Nightwish, Visions Of Atlantis, Evanescence, Legenda Aurea
Website www.myspace.com/thelastaurora
thelastaurora.blogspot.com
Members
Shen Le (Vocals, Piano 2007 - Present)
Felicia Lau Yoke Peng (Vocals 2007 - Present)
Chen Yun (Vocals 2007 - Present)
Pearlyn Tan Shou Hua (Art Director, Manager 2009-)
Former member
Sarah Cheung Zi Ling (Vocals 2008)

The Last Aurora Demo (2007)

Based on the musical experimentations of Shen Le, the original band concept was to create pop music.[5] The band featured only synthetizers, music DJ, piano, and the pop vocals of Shen Le and Felicia. The three musicians recorded their self-titled pop demo in the winter of 2007. The name “The Last Aurora” was derived from the imagery of the last hope to mankind, and the first demo also included early versions of “Night Requiem”, “Naturalization”, “Contrapuntal”, “Opus Ab Silentium”, and “Ethereal Realm”.
After listening to Evanescence, Shen Le and Chen Yun decided to play gothic and emo music.

Dawncast (2007)
Main article: Dawncast
In late 2007, Shen Le began listening to Nightwish and added ethereal and dark elements to the band's existing experimental style gave the band a unique sound, forming the core of The Last Aurora sound.

The band recorded ten songs for their first album, entitled Dawncast.
Dawncast is one of the three albums which features Chen Yun’s vocals, appearing on one of the album's ten tracks, alongside vocalist Shen Le.

Critical reception of Dawncast was generally optimistic, with Merissa Ang rating the album 4 out of 5 stars,[6] and Emily stating that The Last Aurora’s debut album is “OK”.

Old Shadows Linger (2008)
Main article: Old Shadows Linger

Following a string of pleas from fans, the band filmed their first video clip for “Our Farewell” in April 2009. The Last Aurora completed their second album in 2008. When Sarah Cheung, an old friend of Felicia Lau, joined the band, The Last Aurora then returned to the studio in 2009, to record their follow up album.

On 2008, The Last Aurora released their second full length album, Old Shadows Linger, in Singapore. Adopting a more symphonic and darker sound than Dawncast,[8] Old Shadows Linger saw the band abandon much of the pop and fun elements present on their debut release. In contrast to the female vocals of Shen Le, the album also featured growling vocals by Chen Yun.

Old Shadows Linger was well received, with Merissa writing that the album “as a whole works great”, with songs that are “very strong”.[9] Old Shadows Linger was an instant success in Singapore. The album’s first single, “Our Farewell”, hit number 1 on the school charts, where it stayed for several weeks.[5]

The Truth Before The Dawn (2009)
Main article: The Truth Before The Dawn (album)

Critical response to the album was great, with Merissa Ang citing the album as brilliant, and saying “as a whole album, it can be a little overwhelming, but mindblowing”. However, Lau Yi Lin declared The Truth Before The Dawn “Album of the Year”, despite competing against long-awaited May releases from Japanese bands.
Following the release of The Truth Before The Dawn, The Last Aurora embarked on their fourth recording.

The record included guest performances by Felicia Lau, and Sarah Cheung.
Shortly after the release, Vocalist Chen Yun was asked to leave the band, and Sarah Cheung joined the band. Sarah Cheung would, apart from perform vocals, will also play the piano together with Shen Le. Earlier, when needed, Chen Yun performed the male vocals. Shen Le now had to do the vocals. Shen Le has afterwards said that he and Chen Yun still keep in touch. However, they are not interested in making another project together. The reason of Chen Yun’s dismissal was that she was not committed enough to the band and had creative conflict with the band.
After the recording in the Old Shadows Linger on June 21, 2008, the two other members of The Last Aurora decided that it was best to continue The Last Aurora without Chen Yun,[11] a feeling they expressed through a sms which was given to Chen Yun by Felicia Lau. It was written by Shen Le and signed by everyone. The main justification of Chen Yun’s dismissal given in the letter was that the band felt that she had changed her attitude towards the band.

Trio For Trilingualism (2009)

After listening to FIR, Shen Le decided to make an album full of pop. “We’ve been doing sad, spooky stuff for so long, this is gonna be a fun distraction. Pop is not as shallow as it seems. This album will talk about love, inspiration, and just being yourself. Of course, the title means there’s gonna be three of us, and trilingualism, since I can speak three languages.” Shen Le commented.

Felicia Lau and Chen Yun both applaud the idea, thinking it is a welcome distraction after the end-of-year. Felicia will be singing the English songs, while Chen Yun will sing the Chinese, and Shen Le will sing the Japanese.

Sarah Cheung has been kicked out of the band, due to dismal lack of concern for the band.

“I can’t believe Sarah will do this. I mean, I thought I knew her, as a friend… But she doesn’t like Shen Le, because she just want me to friend her alone. She’s kind of obsessive.” Felicia Lau said.

Legends Of The Night (2010)

In September, The Last Aurora's Shen Le said she just finished writing nine songs. However, the last song would be a full sonata of piano music entirely composed by her, which will be very difficult for this amateur pianist. “At the moment I have one complete album, and a pretty clear overall vision for the album. It's gonna be fantastic to start working with it full-time, sometime next year. But we need to survive O-levels first!”

This album is rumoured to include the band member Pearlyn Tan Shou Hua.

The O-levels will end in winter 2009 and then they will start with the new album.

[edit] Music Influence
Main article: Shen Le

Shen Le, writer of most of the band’s lyrics and musical scores, says that she gets most of the inspiration for The Last Aurora’s songs from books, experiences, and other music.[23] Books like The Navigator “The Navigator And The Watcher”, fairytales “Ever After”, No Escape “Witch Child”, Ringu “Sadako’s Threnody. “Many songs are written from the bottoms of our hearts,” Shen Le said. “We want our listeners to contemplate ideas which might not be morally wrong, such as is it alright to kill someone to save them “Lavia”, to kill somebody you love, because if you can’t have them, nobody can? “Murder For Madness”. How about killing everyone to get your beloved? “A Great And Terrible Beauty”. We also want people to forgive drug addicts “In A Darkened Room”, don’t stereotype people based on their looks “Grendel’s demise”, is it alright to die for love “Aria For Ariel”, not even to become a vampire to save you love from dying of anaemia? “1001 Nights As An Undead”.

Musical style

The Last Aurora’s music had pop ditties “Whiteout”, rock anthems “Why Don’t You”, romantic ballads “In That Time”, hardcore metal “I Wish For A Rainy Day”, emo classics “Relinquishment”, power metal “You Are My Sin”, and epics “The Songwriter Ad The String”.

“It is hard to stereotype us. You might listen to Dawncast and dismiss us as Avril Lavigne, or label us as emo based on “Old Shadows Linger”, but the truth is, we’re always evolving.” Shen Le said. “If we feel like writing dark romantic epics, we will. I’ll even make a whole album of pop fluff if I want. It’s no trouble finding a catchy melody with poetic lyrics.”

While the music of The Last Aurora is mostly not composed by the members, the piano and synthesized parts are. “We want to thank the artists of freeplaymusic for making this awesome music available for us. What better use can there be, in writing some lyrics, and then finding the music that eerily suits it? It’s not like we’re making money out of this. I will definitely compose my own music once I finished grade 8 piano,” Shen Le said. Although the songs are centered around a female lead singer,[40] the band has also featured some male vocals (done by Chen Yun and Shen Le) on their albums ever since Old Shadows Linger. The songs also feature a lot of dialogue. “We want to make this seem like a movie score. People talking makes the audience feel more involved with the song.” Shen Le said.