APF records has just celebrated its 7th birthday and is once again treating the world with fabulous music, on this occasion it’s the debut album from Bristolian quarter Urzah. While listening to this album I was all set to talk about Urzah taking up the mantle from the sadly split up again Earthtone9, then those glorious bastards announced a new album out of nowhere! So in a twist this review has now become about the gauntlet being thrown down by the new, if Earthtone9 can top The Scorching Gaze then 2024 will be a very special year indeed.
By no means is this a rip off but it’s an easy way for me to describe the ground that the majority of the music sits as it casts between metal and having post-hardcore and post-metal influences. The opening trio of ‘I, Empyrean’, ‘Lacrimare (Misery’s Shadow)’ and ‘Immateria Noir’ are the ones that give off those strongest emotions to that as they have a pace, guitar tone and vocal delivery which drive the tracks in a hybrid which is neither too metal nor overly saturated in post-hardcore. There is a great amount of energy raised but in a very progressive manner and I find Earthone9 an easy comparison as they are not easy to pigeonhole to a genre, nor have they really been matched, until now. However, the approach is similar but the album has a good deal of differences also.
There are full on beatdowns in ‘A Storm Is Ever Approaching’, djented styles of the acrobat riffing of Arcane Roots in the opening to ‘Of Decay’, which has the heaviest chorus I have ever found catchy with screams of ‘Vesuvius’. Whilst the closing combo of ‘Thera I (Sea of Flames)’ and ‘Thera II (Embers of Descent)’ have great post-metal tones and passages. At no point do any of those songs sit out of place and the flow of the entire album is absolutely perfect. Aiding this is a glorious recording from Phoxjaw guitarist Josh Gallo, the results sound dark, heavy and massive.
Urzah has shown promise with its previous releases and The Scorching Gaze fulfils that and more. This is one of the great British metal releases this year with a stunning mix of so many sub-genres that offer something to everyone without ever losing ground on what they are producing. By mixing up metal, post-metal, post-hardcore, sludge and doom Urzah has opened the whole scene to themselves and they do not disappoint.
