Band:	Urna
Album:	Iter Ad Lucem
Style:	Black metal, Funeral doom metal
Release date:	March 2009

01. Iter Ad Lucem Pt. I
02. Iter Ad Lucem Pt. II
03. K-TH-R
04. Om
05. Sefira Malkuth
06. (untitled)

With Iter Ad Lucem, Urna delivered one of the best Funeral Doom albums of '09. It seemed nobody noticed, though, as they're rarely the subject of discussion. Time to fix that.

Urna is not a newbie in the scene. Iter Ad Lucem ("Path towards the light") is their third full-length and the guitarist and bassist of Urna is also the guitarist of Arcana Coelestia. And that is immediately the most important comparion. These two Italian Funeral Doom bands share a large part of their sound, but whereas AC is chaotic and cataclysmic, Urna is cold and sorrowful. Don't get me wrong - there is plenty of Esoteric (-lite) hellfire and mayhem on Iter Ad Lucem, but the main component is definitely sorrow.

The sadness the album emits comes from it's strongest element - the wonderful guitar tone. It's translucent, lucid, glacial and full of sorrow. From the get-go, Urna manages to sound utterly honest in their sadness, due to this opaque sound. MZ's riffs paint bleak pictures, with soaring melodies buried deeply within, tearing your soul apart. Coupled with RM's Funeral Doom growls - you know, those deep, lifeless growls with the occasional harsh edge - Urna is quite the overwhelming ensemble.

Unfortunately they cannot keep the listener in their sonic embrace all the time. In a few of introvert moments of pondering they forget about the listener and let go for a while. This does not happen often, though and when it does, chaos and sorrow are usually quickly restored. After more than sixty minutes, one can only conclude Urna has created a dynamic, harrowing and agonizing album.