01. At The Mouth Of The Cave
02. The Call Beneath
03. Infernal Star I
04. Infernal Star II
05. Bark & Branches
06. In The Mouth Of The Wolf
07. Hunter In The Veil
08. Entwined, Twisted Roots Of Chaos

A Tranquil Void forms a diptych with Urzah’s debut album The Scorching Gaze, offering contemplation in the aftermath of a raging inferno. It’s an album that builds upon what was already an outstanding piece of work and nicely complements its predecessor while being a fantastic album in its own right.

The Bristolian quartet already took a big step forward from their promising 2022 EP II to their 2024 debut album, a post-y progressive sludge metal tour de force that, while not being released on Pelagic Records (Urzah find themselves on the APF Records roster), bore several of the characteristics of the best bands that get signed up onto the Pelagic label. A Tranquil Void carries over much of what made the debut album such a great listen, but features further expansion of their sound by Urzah.

When it comes to progressive sludge metal, there is often a natural inclination to mention Mastodon as a reference point, and some very Leviathan-esque moments on The Scorching Gaze (specifically the song “Thera I (Sea Of Trees)”) made the comparison inevitable; however, overall, the debut wasn’t too indebted to Mastodon. While avoiding the most blatant resemblances akin to “Thera I”, A Tranquil Void arguably has a few more moments reminiscent of the Atlanta heavyweights, particularly on this album’s own two-parter “Infernal Star”. However, the band I feel most inclined to mention is Urne; specifically, A Tranquil Void sounds somewhat like what could have been had Urne gone in a different direction after the release of Serpent & Spirit, one that played more to the features of that debut release that I most enjoyed than the direction they’ve ultimately pursued.

That comes more into play towards the latter stages of the album. The album works its way in steadily with “At The Mouth Of The Cave", a heavy yet spacious and somewhat ominous track that builds tension nicely into the feisty beginning of “The Call Beneath”. There’s a mathcore-influenced stabbing intensity to this song’s opening seconds, and a hench weight to its chugging mid-tempo sludge riffs. “Infernal Star” is similarly a riff-fest, but with a slightly lighter and more melodic palette; this is the first song where those early Urne vibes come through for me, particularly due to the faint 00s melodic metalcore tones that come through in the bridge section. “Infernal Star II” is a great counterpart, predominantly instrumental-only and offering a conveyer belt of seamlessly interconnecting riffs before building to a grand post-rock climax.

The Scorching Gaze had a couple of clean vocal segments from guest musicians, but Urzah have been more ambitious themselves on the vocal front this time around. “Bark & Branches” is a clean-sung acoustic lull in the middle of the record, one that is sonically rich in spite of stripping down the band’s components, and it acts as a good segue into the record’s more expansive/experimental second half. “In The Mouth Of The Wolf” also has clean singing in its chorus, and while it has gnarly riffs, this song generally has a bit of that sludge-lite accessibility of Urne, particularly during the extended instrumental-only passage in its second half.

“Hunter In The Veil” is more biting in its verses, but those are framed around hazy, gazing textures and soaring melodic guitar lines that really take listeners out into the cosmos. “Hunter In The Veil” may be my favourite song here, but the most unique is 12-minute closer “Entwined, Twisted Roots Of Chaos”. It is a true post-metal slow burn, sticking to ominous clean textures for the first few minutes while airy clean vocals from guest Victoria Bourne (The Spark’s Desire) float around. When it erupts in distortion, it is in the form of lumbering, brooding riffing, which gradually takes on a subtly melodic touch as the song works its way towards its conclusion.

It feels cliché to describe an up-and-coming band releasing a slightly more contemplative or accessible album to be a ‘maturation’ of its predecessor, and to be honest I felt The Scorching Gaze was more than mature enough as it is. However, A Tranquil Void offers a great exhibition of Urzah’s sound in a way that subtly differs from the debut while retaining many of the same strengths. With this pair of albums under their belt, this Bristol quartet are for my money one of the shining lights of the current UK metal underground, and I hope this album takes them much closer to the level of success they already deserve.