Label - Candlelight Records
Release Date - 11th August
Words- Tony Bliss
When Serpent & Spirit emerged in 2021, comparisons to prime Metallica and peak-form Mastodon may have seemed a tad hysterical to a largely off-guard metal community. The riffs don’t lie however, and it didn’t take long for us all to get with the programme and proclaim - loudly and justly - ‘yeah, it’s that good’. Recognizably in debt to thrash and extreme metal’s elder gods, yet with all manner of progressive and post-metal detours, Urne bring past and present together with the surety of scene veterans, their sound brutal and melodic in equal measure and wonderfully grandiose with it. Of course, the only problem with your debut record being an instant classic is the much-anticipated follow-up - yet somehow, A Feast For Sorrow is genuinely even better, and in every aspect.
Reflecting on frontman Joe Nally’s recent experiences with grief and loss, there is little doubt that these songs carry a thematic darkness that could have weighed all too heavy on the listener. In such skilled hands as these however - and under the watchful eye of Gojira’s Joe Duplantier on production duty - A Feast On Sorrow still feels uplifting, such is the thunderous, timeless heavy metal magic generously funnelled into every riff and snare hit. When opener ‘The Flood Came Rushing In’ boots off in fully fledged, thrash battalion fashion, it’s truly monstrous, ‘To Die Twice’ then following with similar sinew-wrenching intent, dialling back the pace somewhat with numerous power-groove explosions perfectly placed for maximum, neck-wrecking impact.
Bearing slight resemblance to mid-career Opeth with its mutating-in-real-time approach, ‘A Stumble Of Words’ is a remarkable piece of work, Nally’s wretched howls and stark vulnerability a real lump-in-the-throat presence across its sprawling eleven minutes. Recent single ‘The Burden’ brings us back into signature Urne riff-o-rama mode, a doom-laden slugfest with a blast-fuelled final few seconds to see us home, whereas ‘Becoming The Ocean’ is a bona-fide tech-thrash ripper and the title track resounds with mid-paced, deathly power (albeit with a reoccurring clean vocal hook to boot).
With an embarrassment of metallic riches already flung our way, closer ‘The Long Goodbye / Where Do The Memories Go?’ almost seems like a final summation of why Urne are the best thing to happen to our world for quite some time. Another eleven-minute-plus colossus, its dynamic cut ‘n’ thrust, emotional rawness and various melodic payoffs encapsulates precisely why A Feast For Sorrow is both the bravest and best metal album of 2023. And it’s not even close.
9.5/10
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