“I feel like I'm in Metallica in 1988 with what we do,” says Urne frontman Joe Nally, and it’s hard to disagree with him as it feels in the last few years that Urne are about ready to release their Black Album, their Ascendency, their Blood & Thunder or their The Blackening. That is the album that takes them into the upper echelon of not just the UK music scene but the worldwide one.
Urne have made it, broken through the mire of countless other bands in the scene and taken stages across the country and Europe by storm from the smallest venues to mainstage at Bloodstock, since their debut album they’ve been one of the bands heralded as the next big thing and their third album Setting Fire To The Sky is the one that will make them, I would say or break them, but that's not going to happen.
Along the way their musical journey has been inspired by the Urne-Buriall meditation method from Thomas Browne and it's musings on sadness, isolation and loss however Setting Fire To The Sky sees them with a renewed hope, it’s a record about coming out of the bleakness and embracing light and life, the turmoil of their last record receding then as Urne take the next step.
It’s also an album about heavy metal itself, with tributes to the fans and the legends, three music fanatics living out their dreams in a band displaying their knowledge and deference for what has come before and expounding their love for the support they have received so far on this journey from fans, critics, promoters etc.
Their name is everywhere and rightly it should be, as they manage to combine several styles into their sound. What's always been to Urne's benefit is that they have a complexity and virtuosity that is often lost by trios, if Rush jammed some Mastodon, you'd get a better understanding of Urne, Joe Nally (bass/vocals), Angus Neyra (guitar) and James Cook (drums), play with the force of a 12-piece, when they need to but can make everything intimate and small as if they're playing to you and you alone.
A band never afraid of the word prog, they've been going against the grain since their debut with every record since becoming more of a home for shifting time signatures, about turns and musical experimentation, through sludge, hardcore and extreme metal viciousness, they also have a very keen ear for the traditional side of metal, combining both to create massive, earthmoving soundscapes.
Urne have wrangled SikTh vocalist Justin Hill to produce Setting Fire To The Sun so it has a vitality, feeling thick and analogue but also having a bite and an aggression to it. The boldness of the production matched by the density of the composing. Each instrument is highlighted, the vocals and harmonies are bright and powerful, and of course the riffs will make sure you get whiplash. This third record is Urne on top form, grabbing the music world by the collar and shouting "Pay Attention!"
From the acoustics that begin Be Not Dismayed, before it cascades into an anthemic, thrashy heaviness, those vocals coming in on a track that owes much to Trivium and Machine Head. It's drenched in blackness but there also that nostalgic, upbeat mood that still permeates, that betrays the darkness, as if fighting against it.
Through Weeping Of The World and The Spirit Alive they perfectly blend the modern and the traditional. Weeping Of The World moves through the realms of post metal and prog, undulating between both with ease. The Spirit Alive edges more toward the hardcore and sludge of Mastodon, with more clean vocals and it also features a stunning classic metal guitar solo from Angus Neyra.
Urne have made it, broken through the mire of countless other bands in the scene and taken stages across the country and Europe by storm from the smallest venues to mainstage at Bloodstock, since their debut album they’ve been one of the bands heralded as the next big thing and their third album Setting Fire To The Sky is the one that will make them, I would say or break them, but that's not going to happen.
Along the way their musical journey has been inspired by the Urne-Buriall meditation method from Thomas Browne and it's musings on sadness, isolation and loss however Setting Fire To The Sky sees them with a renewed hope, it’s a record about coming out of the bleakness and embracing light and life, the turmoil of their last record receding then as Urne take the next step.
It’s also an album about heavy metal itself, with tributes to the fans and the legends, three music fanatics living out their dreams in a band displaying their knowledge and deference for what has come before and expounding their love for the support they have received so far on this journey from fans, critics, promoters etc.
Their name is everywhere and rightly it should be, as they manage to combine several styles into their sound. What's always been to Urne's benefit is that they have a complexity and virtuosity that is often lost by trios, if Rush jammed some Mastodon, you'd get a better understanding of Urne, Joe Nally (bass/vocals), Angus Neyra (guitar) and James Cook (drums), play with the force of a 12-piece, when they need to but can make everything intimate and small as if they're playing to you and you alone.
A band never afraid of the word prog, they've been going against the grain since their debut with every record since becoming more of a home for shifting time signatures, about turns and musical experimentation, through sludge, hardcore and extreme metal viciousness, they also have a very keen ear for the traditional side of metal, combining both to create massive, earthmoving soundscapes.
Urne have wrangled SikTh vocalist Justin Hill to produce Setting Fire To The Sun so it has a vitality, feeling thick and analogue but also having a bite and an aggression to it. The boldness of the production matched by the density of the composing. Each instrument is highlighted, the vocals and harmonies are bright and powerful, and of course the riffs will make sure you get whiplash. This third record is Urne on top form, grabbing the music world by the collar and shouting "Pay Attention!"
From the acoustics that begin Be Not Dismayed, before it cascades into an anthemic, thrashy heaviness, those vocals coming in on a track that owes much to Trivium and Machine Head. It's drenched in blackness but there also that nostalgic, upbeat mood that still permeates, that betrays the darkness, as if fighting against it.
Through Weeping Of The World and The Spirit Alive they perfectly blend the modern and the traditional. Weeping Of The World moves through the realms of post metal and prog, undulating between both with ease. The Spirit Alive edges more toward the hardcore and sludge of Mastodon, with more clean vocals and it also features a stunning classic metal guitar solo from Angus Neyra.
The drumming from James Cook is used with a muscular virtuosity on the title track, a ferocious beginning to their mid-album powerhouse, thick chugs in the bass rhythms matched with dive bombs and those clean choruses. The Ancient Horizon reasserts Urne's extreme metal credentials with a doom-laden chug, leading into Towards Harmony Hall which again, takes a position of positivity with enormous grooves.
The album was preceded by single Harken The Waves which features Troy Sanders of Mastodon doing his thing all over it. It's sits just before the end of the record and is a a brilliant duet between Sanders and Nally, who's vocal is the best it's been on this third record, disclosing a much wider range inspired by his love of soul music.
Acceptance in the form of catharsis comes with the monolithic Breathe which features the spectral Jo Quail giving another stellar performance, creating atmospheres with her cello that just elevate any track she appears on, keeping that positive outlook until the dying moments, an entire psyche of a band shifted in one album.
An album of the year make no mistake but moreover it's an album that shifts Urne into the next level of their existence as a band. Setting Fire To The Sky could prove to be one of, if not the best albums Urne have created, which is even more impressive when you consider how good their previous two albums are.
Pure heavy metal, unafraid of gatekeeping or pigeonholes, yet extremely accessible for a wider audience, Setting Fire To The Sun is Urne blazing a trail all of their own as the next superstars of the UK metal scene. 10/10
An album of the year make no mistake but moreover it's an album that shifts Urne into the next level of their existence as a band. Setting Fire To The Sky could prove to be one of, if not the best albums Urne have created, which is even more impressive when you consider how good their previous two albums are.
Pure heavy metal, unafraid of gatekeeping or pigeonholes, yet extremely accessible for a wider audience, Setting Fire To The Sun is Urne blazing a trail all of their own as the next superstars of the UK metal scene. 10/10
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