URNA : ITER AD LUCEM
ATMF
‘Esoteric’ doesn’t even begin to describe Urna’s second full-length album “Iter ad Lucem”. An incredibly dark and mysterious journey, it sees co-conspirators MZ and RM recoiling away from funeral doom staples like eyeless serpents from the light, instead choosing a difficult yet rewarding path which is all their own. Slow-paced clashes of mired-down, discordant guitars go a long way in creating the mystical atmosphere, but drone elements, cold ambience and a bravery in the face of both lightness and creativity are also key to making this a very interesting listen.
The six lengthy tracks which make up the album have at their core a discordant, multi-layered, noisy, dirty guitar sound, which crests and flexes away alongside drifts of deep drone and ambient pulses, perfect for balancing calm melancholy and threat. Over the top soar inventive and powerful leads, tinged by a great variation of tones, from the squealing, progressive approach of opener “Iter ad Lucem pt. I”, through the echoing and trance-inducing cleanness of “Pt. II”, to the spiralling assault on “Sefira Malkuth”. The juxtaposition of the astral, unbounded leads and the claustrophobic, shadowy distorted core, replete with savage, guttural vocals from the depths, allows Urna to combine vastness with savagery in a unique and effective way.
Typical song structures are largely set aside, as the depth of the production is more than matched by the scope of the compositions. “Iter ad Lucem” works better as a whole journey, in which the listener can wallow, picking out the steps to enlightenment contained within its mystical meaning. Crescendos and intense bursts of blackened funeral doom give way to clean keys and ambient pauses as individual tracks disintegrate and re-build, lending the tracks an unpredictability and instability that suggest Urna’s eyes are on a higher prize than accessibility and ease of understanding.
Indeed, the complexity and album-wide structuring of movements may be a turn-off to some, but for those interested in discovering something a little different within the funeral doom genre, this is a particular treat, custom-built for long evenings sitting in the dark. Visionary, emotive and uncanny at the same time, “Iter ad Lucem” sees Urna get the best out of their blackened funeral doom roots, and ever-growing experience with electronic terrorism.
80/100
ELLEN SIMPSON
