I listen to a lot of black metal, and particularly enjoy dredging through the underground looking for that new gem. If I’m honest, a lot of the bands all merge into one but back in 2016, I stumbled across a new band called UADA and their debut ‘Devoid of Light’. Originating from Portland, Oregon and being geographically distanced from the more traditional hotbed of black metal perhaps helped them keep that air of individuality but it was immediately obvious that this was something special and stood apart from so many of their peers. Since then, the band have released a second album ‘Cult of a Dying Sun’ which raised the bar further and they took to the road with their ‘Snakes and Vultures’ tour including a stunning show at the Inferno Metal Festival.
That brings us to the present day and the “difficult third album” to negotiate. Let me reassure you that there is not a single sign of this syndrome and ‘Djinn’ surpasses the first two albums pushing the boundaries further.
Clocking in at about an hour for its six tracks, it takes time to allow the tracks to develop and evolve, exploring different textures, sounds and atmospheres. When the first track ‘Djinn’ burst from the speakers, I had to check that I had actually picked the right album as catchy grooves danced from the speakers more akin to post punk than black metal. Pretty soon the riffing increases in intensity and then the familiar guttural roar joins the fray as the track builds into more familiar UADA territory. However, this soon fades out to be replaced by a melancholic guitar piece which of course builds again with more guttural vocals into a crushing piece of mid paced extreme metal with haunting rhythms and melody lines, before returning to the same catchy grooves that opened the track. Talk about covering a lot of ground!
At just under seven minutes, ‘The Great Mirage’ is the shortest track on the album and although it is clearly black metal, its melodies are prominent and dare I say it, catchy. It incorporates several different styles with pummelling riffing and solos vying for dominance, interspersed with growled, echoing vocals. To my ears, some of the guitar work is more akin to classic heavy metal solos than some of the more modern-day shredding and this fits well.
We explode into the epic ‘No Place Here’ with a no holds barred barrage but this soon subsides to sublime guitar melodies. Over the course of nearly fourteen minutes this epic swings from raging black metal vitriol to atmospheric passages and back. The stand out feature here is the glorious atmospheric guitar work perhaps with a nod towards Wolves in the Throne Room or even Agalloch in places. This fades into a film excerpt which I think is from 1964 cult classic ‘The Masque of Red Death’ with the indomitable voice of Vincent Price as Prospero. The vocals become a little less clear as they are interwoven into the guitars, melodies creating a powerful piece lasting nearly four minutes before the track closes.
There is another blasting opening for ‘In the Absence of Matter’ and the guitar melodies had me reminiscing back to ‘Mother North’ era Satyricon. As the track builds, it continues with venom as it evolves with majestic, sweeping guitar melodies and ten minutes is gone in the blink of an eye. There is a definite change in pace for ‘Forestless’, with a post rock, almost psychedelic intro. This builds into a solid post rock instrumental before heavyweight riffs drag it back into black metal territory in preparation for guttural vocals and once this gets its hooks into you it does not let go.
And so to the final track and another 14 minute colossus that, as expected, covers a huge amount of territory with the classic heavy metal solos rubbing shoulders comfortably with more usual extreme metal riffing and harsh vocals building momentum until midway through the track when it slows and a demonic growl sets the scene and changes the atmosphere into something much darker, which persists until another change follows with some outstanding guitar work which takes us to the end of the album.
All in all, this wasn’t quite what I was expecting but ‘Djinn’ sees UADA take big strides forward. The mix is pristine allowing every nuance to be heard clearly and over the course of the six tracks, they effortlessly meld a number of styles giving rich depth and variety to an album brimming with confidence and power. Whereas previous albums have been like a beast lurking in the shadows, this album sees the beast step out into the light, defiantly ready to take on all comers!
(9/10 Andy Pountney)
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