Reviewed - 03/10/05
Pandemonium Theory
[Baphomet Records]
Now this is some odd music here! Or I should say "unique" because "odd" makes it seem like a bad thing. Over the last year or so I've heard a ton of positive things about Italy's Urshurark, but I never bothered with checking them out because I always had other things coming out left and right that I needed to get. It wasn't until I was given the promo to review that I finally got the chance to sit down and see (or hear) what all the hoopla was about surrounding this band, and I was generally surprised to agree with all the people that said I should check them out with.
Urshurark play an amalgamation of styles from mostly black metal to death metal to even a bit of thrash here and there. Mixed in with all of this is a backdrop of odd little dissonant effects and soundscapes going on. Most of this is accomplished with some bizarrely played synth parts, and from time to time there will be piano intermingling with the black and death metal parts. It sounds as weird on C.D. as it sounds with me trying to explain it here in text. Either way, even though this is not what one would generally be thinking to find in death/black metal, it sounds great. The drummer is amazingly fast and is actually the highlight of the album, in my opinion. I'd like to see this band live to see if he could pull this off live.
The lyrics are sung and written in English, and vocalist Luca has a friggin' insane voice! He sounds a bit like the vocalist from Naxzul- just fucking possessed sounding. Since his vocals are so over the top and have such a niche sound, I'm sure some people will be turned off because of them, but I love his style. I wish more vocalists out there would try and break away from the mold seemingly used by black metal vocalists and try to sound different like this. The lyrical content covers everything from Satanism to murder and suicide. Definitely not for the politically correct!
The production is great and those machine gun-like drums come through better the louder you turn your stereo up, it seems. They had my Cerwin Vega's screaming and I thought it was going to knock the bay window out of the side of my house. This production also gives the overall sound of the album quite a bit of bassiness (hence the window-rattling), so no tinniness here, and the high pitched sound of some of the keyboards are canceled out by the bassier aspect of the metal portion of the album.
The packaging and overall layout of the album is pretty decent. The cover has a CGI image of a thorn pierced angel that is pretty cool. The inside of the lyric booklet contains all of the lyrics as well as some photos of the band and a few nature photos as well. Nature photos? I guess after a long day of hailing Satan and talking of the human species' demise, you just need to escape to the woods to get away from it all. You'll also find another CGI image of a demon spawning forth from its brimstone pit. Glen Benton would be proud. If he wasn't such a retard, that is.
So, what makes this album so unique to me? Simple. While there are a lot of melodic and epic death oriented black metal bands that used orchestral styled keyboard/piano passages, very few guttural and raging death/black metal bands use them like Urshurak does on "Pandemonium Theory". This is certainly not the best album I've heard in the last few months, but it is indeed pretty damn good It is nice to realize that all the people hyping this album weren't just talking out of their asses.
[Baphomet Records]
Now this is some odd music here! Or I should say "unique" because "odd" makes it seem like a bad thing. Over the last year or so I've heard a ton of positive things about Italy's Urshurark, but I never bothered with checking them out because I always had other things coming out left and right that I needed to get. It wasn't until I was given the promo to review that I finally got the chance to sit down and see (or hear) what all the hoopla was about surrounding this band, and I was generally surprised to agree with all the people that said I should check them out with.
Urshurark play an amalgamation of styles from mostly black metal to death metal to even a bit of thrash here and there. Mixed in with all of this is a backdrop of odd little dissonant effects and soundscapes going on. Most of this is accomplished with some bizarrely played synth parts, and from time to time there will be piano intermingling with the black and death metal parts. It sounds as weird on C.D. as it sounds with me trying to explain it here in text. Either way, even though this is not what one would generally be thinking to find in death/black metal, it sounds great. The drummer is amazingly fast and is actually the highlight of the album, in my opinion. I'd like to see this band live to see if he could pull this off live.
The lyrics are sung and written in English, and vocalist Luca has a friggin' insane voice! He sounds a bit like the vocalist from Naxzul- just fucking possessed sounding. Since his vocals are so over the top and have such a niche sound, I'm sure some people will be turned off because of them, but I love his style. I wish more vocalists out there would try and break away from the mold seemingly used by black metal vocalists and try to sound different like this. The lyrical content covers everything from Satanism to murder and suicide. Definitely not for the politically correct!
The production is great and those machine gun-like drums come through better the louder you turn your stereo up, it seems. They had my Cerwin Vega's screaming and I thought it was going to knock the bay window out of the side of my house. This production also gives the overall sound of the album quite a bit of bassiness (hence the window-rattling), so no tinniness here, and the high pitched sound of some of the keyboards are canceled out by the bassier aspect of the metal portion of the album.
The packaging and overall layout of the album is pretty decent. The cover has a CGI image of a thorn pierced angel that is pretty cool. The inside of the lyric booklet contains all of the lyrics as well as some photos of the band and a few nature photos as well. Nature photos? I guess after a long day of hailing Satan and talking of the human species' demise, you just need to escape to the woods to get away from it all. You'll also find another CGI image of a demon spawning forth from its brimstone pit. Glen Benton would be proud. If he wasn't such a retard, that is.
So, what makes this album so unique to me? Simple. While there are a lot of melodic and epic death oriented black metal bands that used orchestral styled keyboard/piano passages, very few guttural and raging death/black metal bands use them like Urshurak does on "Pandemonium Theory". This is certainly not the best album I've heard in the last few months, but it is indeed pretty damn good It is nice to realize that all the people hyping this album weren't just talking out of their asses.
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Tracklist:
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| Rating: 8/10 | |
| Release Date: 2004 | |
| Length: 35:45 | |
| Review By: Britton Dicks | |
| Total Reviews: (1) | |
| Bands Website: Go Here | |
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