UK based Urzah has been steadily building a name for themselves over the past six years, and their particular blend of sludge with post metal gave listeners just as many pummeling grooves as it did expansive atmosphere. 2024’s The Scorching Gaze showcased a band that really understood both the aggressive and subdued elements of the respective genres they were pulling from, and this year’s A Tranquil Void naturally expands on every aspect laid down by its predecessor. It’s the type of album that’s split into distinctive halves, emphasizing more upfront riffs and power before sprawling outwards and letting its atmosphere build. There are a lot of different things happening over the album’s eight tracks, and it’s clear that Urzah has capitalized on what made them stand out before.
“At the Mouth of the Cave” opens with the howling of the wind before building in a methodical fashion with spacey, repeating guitar leads that expand over top of a lumbering foundation of bass and drums. It almost feels like Urzah is looking to lull the listener into a trancelike state over the track’s three-and-a-half-minute run, but then “The Call Beneath” comes roaring in with more power and aggression that jolts you back to attention. This track is more direct in its approach, but it also showcases the stylistic depth the band has. Within the course of this track you get scorching riffing that has a bit more of a hardcore edge to it, but the density of the grooves retains a lot of sludge. The remainder of the first half sticks with this more direct, riff forward approach, trading off between bludgeoning grooves and soaring melodies that bring in post metal’s shimmering atmosphere. But once you reach “Bark Branches” it’s clear the band has more up their sleeve, as this track offers a haunting acoustic interlude. “In the Mouth of the Wolf” still has some fire and grit to it, with leads that have a bit more of a stoner metal/southern rock swagger to them mixed in with the post metal, while “Hunter in the Veil” reaches some stunning heights with its melodies. Closer “Entwined Twisted Roots of Chaos” is A Tranquil Void’s longest piece, and it spends a lot of its almost thirteen-minute span exploring somber melodies and reflective tones before reaching crushing peaks. Compared to The Scorching Gaze this album has a better flow between the tracks, especially with the way that “Bark Branches” naturally separates the stylistic differences between the two halves. There does remain room for growth, as there are moments where Urzah is pushing beyond metal into more of the Americana and psychedelic realms but they don’t quite make that full jump over.
The vocal approach remains similar to The Scorching Gaze, meaning that the majority of the performance comes through with harsher screams, yells, and growls that contribute additional power to the material. This is where Urzah falls a bit more into the post metal end of the spectrum, as the way the vocals stand tall above the recording and contribute additional weight reminds me of early Rosetta. You can also hear hints of hardcore to the cadence, and while the first half sticks primarily with this approach some other elements do appear later on. “Bark Branches” is one of the best examples of this, as the screaming fades out entirely in favor of melancholic singing that reminds me more of bands like Bask or Huntsmen. It’s a surprising addition, and this is expanded upon once “In the Mouth of the Wolf” begins where the singing and screaming trade off from verse to verse. It’s clear on these later cuts that Urzah is continuing to push out from the usual genre approaches when it comes to vocals, and I’d like to hear these utilized even more in the future.
Two years after their debut full length, Urzah has returned with an album that feels like a natural extension of its predecessor. Some clear production tweaks have been made and both the aggressive and reflective sides of the instrumentation have been built upon, alongside some different approaches to the vocals. Whether you’re a fan of heavy grooves or the sweeping atmosphere of post metal, there’s plenty here that will have keep you invested in what Urzah brings to the table, but the second half also hints at more exploration still to come. I don’t necessarily see them doing a full transformation into psychedelic or Americana territory like some of their US counterparts, but there’s more ground untapped and it’ll be interesting to see what they choose to tap into by album three. A Tranquil Void is available from APF Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg