Band:	Ur Draugr
Album:	The Wretched Ascetic
Style:	Blackened death metal
Release date:	January 08, 2015
A review by:	deadone

01. Unseen Golgotha
02. The Wretched Ascetic
03. Sombre Moribund

Ur Draugr certainly know how to draw a punter in. Indeed, who can resist wanting to listen to a release with a cover featuring what looks like a giant creepy grown up foetus doing some weeding by pulling up entire trees from the ground. And couple that with a cool title like The Wretched Ascetic and one instantly thinks "this has to be good." Yet, as we all know, judging anything by its cover is a path fraught with risk.

In essence Ur Draugr play what modern genre boffins might call blackened progressive death metal or progressive black death metal or something similar. Essentially take Opeth in their extremist moments, pour in black metal ala Behemoth and add texture to taste.

It all starts off quite well. The first track begins with brooding acoustic guitars before exploding into a crescendo of blackened riffs and cavernous growls that would make Mikael Akerfeldt proud.

The second track, "The Wretched Ascetic" starts off well enough with a massive intro before settling into more blackened Opethian soundscapes. And then the wheels fall off.

The major problem with this release is that it loses momentum by the 8 minute mark (basically 2 minutes into the second track). It kind of stumbles along for most of the second track with disjointed black death metal contrasted with somewhat pointless mellower meanderings. It's not all bad and there are still some great moments, but it could have been so much better with some judicious editing and attention to composition.

To make matters worse the third track is basically a long acoustic outro that is more at home on an hour long album and not a 20 minute EP. Especially as the track spends most of its time withering away into silence. It feels completely pointless.

There is great potential for this band. They write some great riffs and manage to attain a great balance between the brooding and malicious atmosphere of black metal and riff focused energy of death metal. The EP itself is worth listening to, even though it's got some flaws and feels too short in terms of actual meaty black death metal.