Album Review: Urzah – A Tranquil Void
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
It was last September, funnily enough on my 51st birthday, that I watched Urzah at APF Fest in Manchester, where they were the first band of the day. I’d heard many good things about the quartet, and they certainly didn’t disappoint anyone in the venue whilst giving us a brief insight into their upcoming album.
They performed three new songs that day, which were the powerful duo of “Infernal Star I”, “Infernal Star II” and “Entwined Twisted Roots of Chaos” which sounded dark and progressive, full of broodiness and heavier sections. The first song on “A Tranquil Void” greets the listener with a seemingly cold wind blowing before a single guitar beckons you closer in as you are hit by the big pounding drums from James Brown. Main vocalist/guitarist Ed Fairman has an imposing voice, and “At The Mouth of the Cave” is a harrowing, slow descent into rejecting apathy for aspiration, and it’s a strong start to the album.
It leads into a more dynamic sounding song called “The Call Beneath” which is about overcoming grief and hits you right in the temple as the riffs from Fairman and fellow guitarist Tom McElveen, are both bruising and atmospheric with a real cutting edge to them. They impose their music upon you right from the off, with the aforementioned “Infernal Star I” and “II” up next, songs that draw “inspiration from both personal introspection and awe in the face of the vast cosmos”. There’s a range of glorious tempo switches across both songs, as they maintain that heavy brutal sound, with monstrous basslines from Dan Bradley across both.
By combining elements of sludge, doom and post-metal, they have allowed themselves scope to open more people’s minds to who they are, and this is certainly an attention-grabbing album. “Bark Branches” is darker and sinister in tone, as they seek to create art and meaning in spite of adversity, with a gentler guitar and cleaner vocal. It has that cathartic feel as do many of the songs, slowing the album down without doing any damage to the feeling or passion of the music.
Nevertheless, they come back to life on “In The Mouth of the Wolf” with a more progressive and harsher guitar tone that sees the band examining forgiveness and personal healing. You can certainly tell that they are pushing themselves, and it’s great to hear, as a live band they are a force to be reckoned with, and this album backs up their potential. The group explore the cycle of death and renewal with “Hunter in the Veil” as the vocals sound more intense and anguished in sections, allowing the compositions the thrust itself upon the listener.
They showcase their expansive repertoire across nearly thirteen minutes of music with the monumental soundscape that is “Entwined Twisted Roots of Chaos”. It’s a majestic track that flows effortlessly and shows great ambition with interlocking sections of music that build around the fragile, haunting whispers before they dominating roaring vocals pierce the structures. It’s quite an ending and there’s no way you are putting this down without playing it repeatedly.
For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.
Be the first to comment