Uragh "Maelstrom" Album Review

 

   On the rare ocassion a new band will come to fruition and for some unknown reason you'll think they've being playing for a very long time,this is the effect the absolute force of nature Progressive Metal act Uragh have had on me when i first witnessed them live for the first time almost a year ago at the Grand Final of Metal 2 The Masses 2023,since then they've continued to garner a wider audience with their stellar live shows, a few months ago they entered JSR Audio  to record their absoutely earth shattering debut album Maelstrom, i knew they ahd something special for us all but nothing prepared me for the absolute magnitude of quality within this album.

   Straight from the off they go for the jugular with the full on assualt of  Monarch, the Pounding Bass and Drums drive a barage of  disorientating riffs combined with a visceral vocal delivery,the lyrical theme with this is about a Baroness who rules over a district and rules over them through fear and subjugation,the line "Let The Rats Fight Amongst Themselves" shows the level of disdain she has for them, the rhytnm sections throughout Apparition are unnervingly dark and relentless with the Guitar intertwining and meandering through various time signatures leaving your brain mangled and continously guessing what sort of mind blowing passages are on the horizon, the pace and relentlessness is brought down a bit for the short atmospheric bassline interlude of  Gewissenbiss, this serves as a nice way of splitting proceedings before the next part of the relases.

 

   We're treated to the mid paced groov laden heaviness of the brilliant The Widening Gyre the Guitar passages are taken to another level of abrasiveness the combination of those crushing grooves and screeching guitars are like  a short sharp shock to the senses,the drumming gradually builds an atmosphere,then we're thrown another bit of a curveball with the clean vocal passage this adds a really passionate and awe-inspring element to  the overall product.

  At This stage of the album you think you've heard everything the band are capable of doing,not likely with the absolutely mind blowing Capsize which drags you every which way through plenty of Progressive passages with amazing clean vocal delivery then switching into barages of Death Metal brutality,at times during this you feel like your been tossed through a grinder then floating through dream-like psychedelic passages which ,the way Vocalist Craig Murphy orchestrates the different vocal styles between the clean and aggressive is like some puppet master controlling all your emotions, this next track Ar An Tra Fholamh is really interetsing and feels like some sort of time lapse ,having the spoken word As Gaeilge adds a really eery and dream like sequence as if your lost in some sort of upside down alternate reality

    There's still more superlatives left to explore within this monumental offering especially when were treated to more groove infused heaviness with Regrowth At The Mouth Of Sickness ,the levels of crushingly heavy passages throughout this are mind numbing ,combine that with the trademrk fantastic rhytmn section and the absolutely amaizng lead guitar work of  Marcelo Varge and you have a track of truly epic proportions, another things that needs to be pinted out is the fantastic bassline of Sebastian Sparr and the phenomenal drumming from Jason Hodgkins these become even more prevelent throughout the quality El Cazador which throws up even more disorientating passages, closing track Mo Dhia Mhaith remember i mentioned the clean vocals well they're more to the fore throughout this track, if you're thinking the add a similar feeling to the other times ,not a chance this time they're have a melancholic aura to them which adds extreme levels of vitriol to the aggressive ones,the epic structure throughout this is absolutely phenomenal and is the perfect way to close out this part of the bands stories.

  

Not only is it mind blowing to believe this is the bands debut album but also that thet formed less then 2 years ago,although the members may have previously been in other band before,the levels of how tight and brilliantly structured the whole album is a monstrous testament to how much hard work and attention to detail they put into not just this release but also their live performances,which i may add are a sight to behold is, Maelstrom is possibly up there with one of the best debut albums from an irish Metal act,this is definitely a bonafide contender for album of the year for me and i will add this is only the beginning of what this band will deliver in the future.

RATING: 9.8/10

FB: https://www.facebook.com/uraghband

IG: https://www.instagram.com/uraghband/

Bands To Watch(Irish Rock & Metal Community) For 2024(Part 1)

 2023 was full of memorable releases within the Irish Rock and Metal scene including a few new bands making their mark on a thriving community,i will be including a few who unleashed some quality releases in 2023 and a few bands who i think are worth paying attention to in 2024, i'll include links to all their music in this spotlight

URAGH

 The Absolutely mind blowing Progressive Metal Quartet Uragh are an absolute Force of Nature and made a huge ripple within the Irish scene,about a year ago they were releatively unknown that all changed pretty quickly with truly explosive performances in Metal 2 The Masses which saw them eventually make it to The Grand Final and delivered an absolutely devastating performance,they were unlucky not to win the competition but this experience really pushed them to the fore within the scene,not long after the band carried on regardless of not winning the competition with the release of their debut single Decimate which garnered a lot of attention ,near the end of November they unleashed the absolutely monumental single Monarch which was a really huge step forward for this truly talented band,in writing this piece coincidentally i was checking my emails and low and behold there's another absolutely devastating new single entitled The Widening Gyre which is due to be released on 9th February with an accompanying video out on 23rd February,there's was also the announcement that their highly anticipated Debut Album Maelstrom will be released on 19th April, The Storm is Slowly Brewing and i think no one is prepared for the devastation this band are about to unleash.

 FB: https://www.facebook.com/uraghband

  IG: https://www.instagram.com/uraghband/

TERAS

 

Not confined to one specific genre the absolutely brilliant Teras have an aura like no other band ,their live performances are not like your regular gig it's more like an experience were you feel you're in some sort of trance and you feel this addictive urge were you keep wanting more,it's kind of tricky to explain unless you're lucky enough to see them, about a year ago they made an unbelievabke impact within the Northern Ireland Metal community as their first few gigs were in Metal 2 The Masses NI competition culminating in them reaching The Grand Final,this is by no reach of the imagination a phenomenal achievement, after this they continously keep performing at as much shows as possible garnering much deserved attention from more people,before i finally got to see them live i knew there was something special about them and on my second time seeing them they done their first ever Headline show with two established bands in Acid Age & Cursed Sun supporting them in the 7Twenty Bar in Derry, they played an hour+ set at this and were absolutely phenomenal,they ended the year with another headline show in Belfast were they premiered a new song Kill Your Idol this is something that will help to expand their setlist for further live shows,recently it was announced that they'll be playing at Siege Of Limerick for the first time at the end of March,they're also taking part in Metal 2 The Masses NI on March 22nd in Voodoo Belfast, there's also the possibility that they'll be releasing an album in the not so distance future,keep a real close watch on these and if you haven't go see them live.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/TerasOffical.ni

IG: https://www.instagram.com/teras_ni/

the 

LAVEIN

    About a Year ago to the day i went to a gig in Fibbers basement for the first Rage Metal Night of 2023,was paying attention to all the bands that night but one in particular stood out that night a newky formed Modern Metallic Hardcore outfit by the name of LaVein, i knew very little about these with the exception that their Drummer Lachlan also plays with Fornoth, it would become apparent really quickly to a number of people that these weren't messing around and had seriously unmatched potential, i now refer to them as "The Glass Ceiling Smasher" with good reason at that,in the midst of all the furore this band achieved a mind blowing story by not only getting to the Grand Final of Metal 2 The Masses Ireland  they also won it, not many bands cna say they formed and about half a year later were told they're going to be playing at Bloodstock Festival,also just before the Grand Final they did release their absolutely devastating Debut EP Fine Failure ,they also got to support one of their favourite bands Kublai Khan TX and played numerous other shows including their first ever time at Siege Of Limerick last October,they're currently working on EP #2 and at the start of March they go on a Five day tour over in the Untied Kingdom

THE BOAT SANK

 This final band in my first round up are an absolutely bombastic Instrumental sludgy groovy heftmonger machine, The Boat Sank are also another act that achieved  alot in such a short space of time,the sludge trio would eventually come together out of a love for Groove laden heavy Riffage in the vein of Crowbar,Down etc,was pure coincidence that the members became aware of each other sharing the same practice space in seperate bands,they eventually would start jamming together(Secretly so i'm lead to believe) ,anyway they developed a reputation for stellar live shows extremely quickly during sets in Metal 2 The Masses NI which would culminate in them getting to The Grand Final,although they are mainly an instrumental band there is version of their tracks with vocals,also should mention the use of samples in their live sets adds to the overall aura/sound of the band,anyone who i've tlked to that's seen them says their drummer is an absolute beast behind the kit and he also has a hilarious sense of humour which you'll come across on some of their social media posts and you tube content, as of now i've yet to see this band live ,this NEEDS to be corrected this year,beofre i close this out i have heard murmurings of a brand new single and they're also going at it again in Metal 2 The Masses NI for Heat 6 on 22nd March,interesting times ahead for this absolutely brilliant Trio.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Theboatsank

IG: https://www.instagram.com/the_boat_sank/