Release of the Week!
As we get into the new year proper and more and more albums and EPs are unleashed, we can finally start to nail down a release of the week. These posts are usually based on first impressions.
This weeks record of choice comes from Germany’s Urfeind. The third full length offering from the black metal three piece starts off strong with title track ‘Thorns of Madness’ bringing the blast beats and tremolo riffs that scratch the black metal itch as soon as you hit play. From here the album marches on in reliably similar fashion.
A standout worth mentioning is the lead guitar. Whilst it’s not doing anything particularly novel, it cuts through the mist admirably which works well alongside the vocals. This is particularly evident on the track ‘The Fallen’. There is also a nice dynamism to the riffing coupled with some effective changes of tempo which means it doesn’t all sound like a copy and paste job.
The one downside that the record has is the length. It’s not overly long and it doesn’t particularly out stay its welcome but at a meaty 51 minutes, it may start to test the patience of some.
Overall though this is really solid outing from a band I had never actually sat down and listened to before. It’s not the cleanest production job, this is black metal after all, but it’s not too raw as to put people off either. Good work and one definitely worth checking out. Artwork is cool too.
