After causing a splash with a 20-minute EP earlier this year, Australian musical extremists Ur Draugr have quickly followed up with a full-length release. Safe to say anyone who enjoyed having their brain cells put through that blackened death metal bullet blender will undoubtedly enjoy repeating the experience over twice as long. Ur Draugr specialise in guttural growls and avant-garde, angular riffs issued forth like jagged, spinning blades aimed at your jugular.
This is technically minded death metal with an exhilarating, mind-melting black metal edge. With Hunger Undying feels a little like I felt when I first encountered Behemoth – like the band is trying to annihilate rather than entertain. And it’s all executed with the precision of a knife-wielding assassin. Even after hearing this it’s hard to shake the feeling that Ur Draugr are only just getting started.
The first couple of tracks act as a reminder of what Ur Draugr are all about – a gentle push into the right mindset before the seismic destruction really begins. Because the third track is a monster and the acoustic interlude of track four only serves as a generous respite before the stuttering black thrash of fifth track Augur Incarnate (Distended Crown) – which, with its progressive and aggressive intensity may just be one of the most impressive things I’ve heard this year – never mind on this album.
Tripping on to the next track after barely skipping a beat things don’t just get better so much as smoother, drawing out the mind-screwing delights of what has gone before for another 5 minutes and 23 seconds. Another low key instrumental interlude may leave the uninitiated worrying that the band has provided its best – after all that cover with its weird rock troll statue thing going on is just a little too impressive for its own good, isn’t it? Well never mind that because you’re about to get that cynical head of yours blown off.
The title track is a little like experiencing a musical landslip – insanely fast tremolo riffs getting bigger and more insane fast as the track goes on while providing a mood that is perhaps more considered and contemplative than such a thing deserves. The final three minutes then goes stratospheric as those lethal riffs – which remind me of the buzzing, wasp guitar riffs one of my top albums this year, VI’s De Praestigiis Angelorum – finally give way to drifting ambience.
How these guys manage to make that slow start, the jarring song structures and the stop-start nature of With Hunger Undying all meld into one exquisitely intense package, is difficult to figure. Maybe it’s the sheer face-scorching guitars or the towering, extended climaxes. Either way, this is quite clearly only the beginning for these Aussie madmen. If I’m right, then they might need to issue protective clothing with their next release.
(9/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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