Ah, melodic black metal. Just got to love it, right? Seriously, there is not much music I can enjoy quite as much as melodic black metal (apart from Type O of course, they are unmatched so far). After Mgła's Exercises in Futility got me back on track, I decided to continue down this road for now and from Mgła it is not far to UADA from Portland.
UADA was founded in 2014 by Jake Superchi who is also the vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the band and the only remaining founding member today. So far, UADA has released four studio albums, their latest album Crepuscule Natura was released in 2023.
For my article today I picked their second album Cult of a Dying Sun (2018), mainly because the first song I ever listened to from UADA was the opener of this album: The Purging Fire. And what can I say, I loved it immediately. The melodic riff is incredibly memorable and Superchi's vocals totally blew me away from the first scream at 0:39. Add fantastic blast beats to the mix and I was hooked.
UADA earned a lot of praise for their first album Devoid of Light (2016) and not everybody is happy with the sophomore album Cult of a Dying Sun. Number one point of critique seems to be the sheer length of the album. With 55 minutes and 7 tracks, it is quite long. That said, I cannot say this bothered me significantly when listening to it. True, the instrumental piece The Wanderer in the middle is somewhat unexpected and I do skip it sometimes to get back to the more fierce music, but it doesn't diminish the album as a whole, not in the least. It is a track providing dark ambience and the guitar playing on here is really good.
Most outstanding for me on this album are Jake Superchi's vocals. He has an amazing range and uses his vocals in a very controlled and concise way. There are near death growls and black metal shrieks and I like it most when he does that kind of hollow howl. Oh, fangirling a bit again. If I make it to Wacken in 2024 - this will be a band I will go and see live.
I find this album very melodic and captivating, although the tempo is relatively high and there is a lot of force and fury to be found. The riffs are reptetitive, but like I've already stated in other articles before, this does not bother me. Each songs features interludes that give you a break from the main melody and when it returns later in some form or other, I am always a happy camper.
Apart from the instrumental The Wanderer, Sphere (Imprisonment) stands out a bit to me. This one is just a bit more aggressive than the other songs at first. The blast beats in here are fantastic and Superchi really goes all out with his voice. Towards the end, it becomes really melodic and uplifting and when the piano sets in, it gives me goosebumps every time.
My favourites on this album are the above mentioned opener The Purging Fire, the title track Cult of a Dying Sun and Blood Sand Ash. The latter has this great strummed intro that always reminds me of Bathory. Those nearly pagan metal elements are to be found throughout this album and I really enjoy this.
This will not be the last UADA album for me. In fact, I am very much looking forward to listening to their other material and hopefully to seeing them live at W:O:A 2024.
Kommentar schreiben