Review: Urzah ‘A Tranquil Void’
I owe Urzah a pint. When their debut album, The Scorching Gaze, was released back in 2024, I listened to it once and thought, ‘This merits further proper listening.’ I then promptly put it on a pile somewhere and didn’t listen to it again until precisely one day after I submitted my Top Ten albums of 2024 list – at which point I realised I’d dropped an absolute clanger, as it would/should have easily cracked my top three that year. So, I suppose rather than owing Urzah a pint, what I actually owe them is an excellent review. Happily, The Tranquil Void requires no such guilt-driven, tokenistic, delayed positivity ‘cos this is another excellent album.
For quite a few of us, the fact that this is being released via APF Records pretty much guarantees that it is at least worth exploring. Mr APF is on something of a roll at the moment, and Urzah’s development only goes to show that a finely tuned ear and an enthusiasm for getting music out to the people is almost as important to the scene as the people who whack, strum and scream (or whatever the fuck it is that musicians do).
For Urzah virgins, what you’re letting yourself in for is probably best described as progressive sludge. The vocals of Ed Fairman are more of a hardcore-shout than a death-metal growl. Think Jimbob Isaac from Taint for the gruff stuff, with clean passages echoing the pipes of Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky.
The first thing that struck me, right from the off, is that the production is different; cleaner than their debut. In fact, the sound of the two albums kinda matches the colour of the respective album covers. I know colours don’t normally have a sound profile, but that’s just how I hear and see it. If you’ve ever delved into the menus of your TV to try and improve the picture, you’ll be familiar with the warm/cold filter for the display colours. Well, The Scorching Gaze did just that; it burnt red, whereas The Tranquil Void is sharp, as clear as diamond, and cuts just as deep. The riffs and performances themselves are less sludgy than before, but certainly as hard-hitting.
The opening track, At The Mouth Of The Cave, begins with the sound of an icy wind, further cementing the change in feel. Unlike the rest of the album, this track focuses on the vocals; it acts almost like a call to arms and an invitation for what’s to come. And what’s to come lands like your grandad’s bag of big spanners, with the riffs from The Call Beneath being akin to prime-era Coalesce in their complexity and brutality.
The Tranquil Void is sharp, as clear as diamond, and cuts just as deep…
Tracks such as In The Mouth Of The Wolfare at once more direct and also effortlessly more complex than their previous output. None of the arrangements feel forced; instead, the songwriting is organic and affecting. This compositional development is probably the biggest progression in Urzah’s work since their debut, which isn’t to disparage the first album at all; it merely serves to demonstrate the lofty level they are working at.
I have no idea what their plans or ambitions are, but to me this sounds like a band who would only need the right support slot on a major tour to catapult them to a very different arena. But if it doesn’t happen, then that’s just fine. Let’s face it, Morrissey was right; we hate it when our friends become successful, and seeing a favourite band blow up (in a good way) is always conflicting, haha.
I won’t bore you with my amateur-hour opining on every single track. Suffice to say we have eight tracks and forty-eight minutes of carefully-crafted, thoroughly-modern metal – not a minute is wasted. Entwined Twisted Roots Of Chaos closes the album. Distant female vocals and melancholy guitars introduce this nigh-on thirteen-minute epic, which ebbs and flows and finishes with probably the most aggressive and frantic performance on the whole album.
It concludes abruptly – no gentle fade-out here – and I’d wager that this finale will leave many a listener as impressed with The Tranquil Void as they have been with almost anything else released so far this year. Certainly not a record that will sit unloved on a pile in the corner of the room this year!
Label: APF Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: David J McLaren
