Galt Aureus is an American rock duo formed in 2005. The group consists of Saher (vocals, keyboard) and Susan (vocals, guitar). As an independent band, they have risen to prominence through a popular YouTube channel and word of mouth rather than through mainstream channels (major label distribution and mass media).

Galt Aureus' second full-length album, Citadels (released in 2009), reportedly reached the top ten on the Lala.com most listened albums chart and has received praise from music bloggers who note the album for its ambitious arrangements, often "layered", "complex" and orchestral in nature, and for having been recorded, mixed and mastered entirely by Galt Aureus. Galt Aureus' YouTube channel was amongst the top 100 subscribed channels of all time.

Acknowledgments

Galt Aureus' animated music video The Armada was selected from over 23,000 entries by the Guggenheim museum curatorial staff to be among 125 videos on the YouTube Play "shortlist" - YouTube Play is a biennial showcase of creative online video.

The Queen of Blades by Galt Aureus was the first place winner of the 2010 BlizzCon Song Contest, an annual contest put on by Blizzard Entertainment.

Musical style and influences

Galt Aureus has been described as "powerful", "epic", "imaginative" alternative rock music by reviewers; stylistically, "they (Galt Aureus) fuse the best of many genres -- the clear precision of classicism, the passion of romanticism, and the intransigent heartbeart of the best of rock." The group cites the master composers (Beethoven, Chopin, Mahler, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff) amongst their primary influences. In accounting for the apparent reference to classical music, particularly of the romantic era, Saher recalls, "I fell in love with Chopin and Beethoven very early on...what I do is informed much more by my favorite composers than any rock band." However, modern artists such as AFI

AFI (band)

AFI is an American alternative rock band from Ukiah, California that formed in 1991. They have consisted of the same lineup since 1998: lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backup vocalist Adam Carson, with bassist Hunter Burgan and guitarist Jade Puget, who both play keyboard and contribute...

, Bright Eyes, Opeth

Opeth

Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...

, The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta is a Grammy award winning American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and...

 and The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...

 do appear on Galt Aureus' assorted social networking websites as influences. Galt Aureus has a distinctive lyrical style that is described as "grand", "elegant" and Saher points to the following authors as influential in his literary style: Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

, Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

, Alexandre Dumas, père

Alexandre Dumas, père

Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...

, Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...

 and William Faulkner

William Faulkner

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...

.

Discography

Citadels (2009)

1. "Overture of Legion"
2. "The Cavalcade"
3. "At Dawn"
4. "Our Own Versailles"
5. "Citadels"
6. "The Armada"
7. "Spiral Stile"
8. "Eight"
9. "Before The Fall"
10. "Conquerors"
11. "Nocturne Carceris"

Heralds to the Sun (2006)

1. "Finis Coronat"
2. "The Glass of Fashion"
3. "All Lights Fade"
4. "Dark"
5. "A Secret Dies"
6. "The Errant Humble"
7. "Fall, The Legions"
8. "Six Ships"
9. "And We've Just Begun"
10. "Veneficus Ruinae"
11. "Silence"

Non-album tracks and other songs

• "Of War and Wisdom"
• "Fallen on the Front Lines"
• "I Want To Believe"
• "Coming Down"
• "This One"
• "For One Girl But All the World to See" (titled Eight on album Citadels).
• "From The Towers to the Ground"
• "Drop The Match"
• "You Don't Want To Find Out"
• "None of Us Are Safe"
• "Is There Anyone Left?"
• "My Lips Are Sealed"
• "The Haunted Mind"
• "The Beautiful Longing Words"
• "The Queen of Blades" (Blizzcon 2010 Original Song Contest Winner)
• "Shining Apollo"

External links

• Official Website: www.galtmusic.com
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/sbgalt