Haar / Ur Draugr
Split EP
(ATMF)
I’m sure you’ve noticed five stars here and might be wondering why. Well, if Ur Draugr wasn’t already amazing enough, they managed to dazzle me with an exquisitely extensive cut that soon erupts into a barrage of fireworks beyond anything that I would have ever expected. But we’re not even going to start there, as Scotland’s Haar are here as well, with another slew of powerful numbers that have me respecting their brand of black metal far beyond that of several hundred other acts that have literally went right in one ear and out the other.
Haar brings us twenty-two minutes of brand new, never before heard material with a lyrical approach that I can actually understand, so that helps. Instead of using a weird and unutterable moniker like Lord Grismikath, the commonly named Gareth Cook vocally offers up three easily discernible cuts that just make a little bit more sense to me. I could blast this record straight to the heavens and still be able to hear practically every word and enunciated vowel in the performance. This is great, because I really want to know what someone’s singing about, instead of it being some private little show for their own consciousness. This is the way that I perform vocals myself and I’d never want to deviate from that formula. Aside from that, we have some wonderfully grim melodies courtesy of Guillaume Martin (Acatalepsy, Barshasketh) and the recently joined Ross Oliver (Risen Prophecy, Vacivus) who has made black metal a sort of new venture, previously having played in several death metal acts prior to joining the act. The drumming is important here as well, which Hamish MacKintosh (Acatalepsy, Monad, Vostok) handles with a certain finesse that carries more weight than the furious blasts of most black metal discs, even though the music here is a bit more in the progressive black metal vein than something like Dark Funeral or Mayhem, for example. The atmosphere feels quite dreary, which is something I feel that I should expect for black metal, but it also lends itself to something of a higher IQ. These three cuts are very brainy and they also contain slight bits of death metal in the vocal, or downright atmospheric mist depending on the track. “Architects” is the most traditional of these, even though I particularly enjoy opener “Extinction” where I can detect some latter-era Naglfar. This being said, there’s certainly a Dark Fortress or Secrets Of The Moon vibe here and that’s more than enough to sell me on the performance. Even a cleaner vocal appears near the end of this side of the split, but it certainly doesn’t tarnish the material, nor is it something I’d even consider remotely crystalline. There’s a great deal of intrigue to be found in Haar’s music this year, just as there was the year before it. If you liked what you’ve heard here, there’s no better time than now to check out The Wayward Ceremony if you haven’t done so yet.
Getting that out of the way, now let me resume talking about Australia’s Ur Draugr. This time, the band have offered us up a track called “The Vista Profunda” that comes in at nearly half the length of their debut album (With Hunger Undying) and metamorphoses in several ways throughout that long tenure. I’ll be honest – at first I thought it was a bit overblown and it took at least five minutes for me to really start to understand exactly what kind of work was being done here. Now I know that Opeth just released a new record this year (Sorceress, but I’m sure you knew that already) but some of the clean vocals I’ve heard creeping up on this release from Drew Griffiths (Aythyr, Obed Marsh) are nearly good enough to make Mikael Akerfeldt run for his money. Griffiths doesn’t stick to squeaky cleans though, preferring something more along the lines of a droning mutter that seems to work in tandem with the seventies inspired progressive rock that the song slowly morphs into. (I told you that this was going to happen.) It then flows into direct atmosphere, which paints over the death metal excursions that you heard in the beginning with something by and large different. But not for long – as the climax erupts into something of a thunderous death metal affair (even though you may hear some tremolos) by which utters the first solo piece of the record. It’s not all that long and the progressive tinges manage to work their way back in, as the piece offers some of the best prog-death this side of classic Opeth. None of this could have been done without the fantasic drumming of Maelstrom (who is in more bands than I can count) as well as the immense attention to detail given by Dean Lockhart (Corpsebitch.) These are the sounds of artisans, men who only know how to perform to the very best of their ability, without the fear of exploring new territory at the risk of alienating fans. That’s dedication.
Seeing here that both bands offer exemplary material, I have absolutely no choice but to award this EP with a perfect score. I can’t find a single thing wrong with it, especially being that the Ur Draugr track was able to go from something that I felt was rather tiresome to something that I felt was rather uncanny, marvelous even. If you’re picking up this split, you’re interested in a newer and more intelligent approach to the death metal and black metal genres. You’re tired of hearing the same old garbage or approaches that have been paved over enough to cover the entire state of Texas. Haar and Ur Draugr prove what masters of their craft they truly are, and the funny thing is that they’ve only just begun. Hopefully purchasing this EP will cause you to hunger for more, which you’ll definitely find on The Wayward Ceremony and With Hunger Undying (which were both released just last year, so don’t come complaining to me about lower production values and such-like) as you’ll find readily available in a wide variety of formats. Don’t let your exposure to Haar and Ur Draugr stop here. My friend, this is only the beginning.
