UADA : "Djinn"

I read a Facebook post comparing this album to Alkaline Trio, so had to check it out. Yes it is more melodic than what I remember from this band. It is still very solidly black metal. There are some other tones cast into the mix. There are some cool, powerful metal riffs Very metal in terms of the guitar solo fired up on "the Great Mirage" . The Portland  band throws any post punk comparisons out of the belfry here. The vocals are a lower growl than typically employed in black metal. Aside from the two thirteen minute songs they keep things to a respectable length. Things are very melodic and well layered this go around. They are angry enough to appease most fans of black metal, but not just dialing in the same old blast beats. Despite the melodic guitar lines the mood circles the same pit as the previous song in many ways though the vocals are a little higher of a snarl.  In fact it is not until the Vincent Price sample comes in that I realize it's a new song. The vocals shift in tone and cadence which made me think this was a different song, then I saw it was the first of the thirteen minute songs. It is not in fact the beginning of a cool new song but a cool ending to a song that ran together with the overall sound of the album.

The first time they use vocals that are touched with goth is on " In the Absence of Matter". It is not like they suddenly turn into Type O Negative, but is is more of a sparse chant thrown in here and there not unlike some of the more recent work by Tombs. The emphasis is still on being a black metal band with the same kind of relentless attack that colors most black metal the only difference being the songwriting is more nuanced. It is one this song where I can hear similar themes beginning to repeat on this album. Not unlike how musicals often return to similar themes. They shift into a more atmospheric clean tone that rings out going into "Forestless". They attack of the riff that kicks in is still very metal. I think the reaction to this album is because we are so numbed by lazy bands taking the easy way out that we forget things like dynamics can add to songs beyond what the status quo might expect. The vocals are snarled out with the same out of venom presented in the previous song. If not marginally angrier. The tremolo picked guitar are there to remind you this is the kind of black metal you originally ordered.

The album closes with the almost 14 minute " Between Two Worlds". It starts of darker and denser , then goes into similar melodic territory they have already harmonized upon. The drumming has more of a half time feel in comparison to the gallop they have used the bulk of the album. The vocals still every bit as nasty. This holds to the most conventional bounds of black metal despite some of the more aggressive grooves it takes in places.  At the six minute mark the riffs shifts to something more death doom.  I will round this one up to a 9, due to their courage to expand upon what they were doing and allowing themselves to grow, I am not sure if this is something I will find myself listening to on a daily basis as it still treads upon ground I already have covered with artists like Tombs who I mentioned earlier. But I am going to acknowledge that this album excels at both songwriting and in the sounds they have crafted here. This album comes out on September 25th on Eisenwald.