The Axis of Perdition — Urfe
Urfe is a double disk concept album based around a deranged, surreal and sinister take on an Alice In wonderland type tale. It finds English Post Black metal project The Axis of Perdition focusing in on the more grim, unhinged ambient and black industlized cinematic side of their sound, with defined blacked metallic elements not appearing until midway into the second disk and then only fleetingly.
The album features for most of it’s running time a spoken word often grim, gory and violent story acted out in wonderfully macabre and often intense theatrical manner by British actor Leslie Simpson who’s appeared in brit horror films the likes of Dog Soldiers, The Descent and Doomsday. Under Simpson texts the band builds a very effective atmospheric back bone that goes from dread filled, to sickly dark and grim, to brooding, to intense and brutal. Mixing bleak synth drifts & barren electro expanses, brooding to intense industrial cinematic percussiveness, darkened guitar scapping, manipulated grim field recordings, sampled choir matter, the odd hints of atmospheric prog guitar scapes & all manner of wonderful formed atmospheric sonic matter to build a highly effective and often dramatic sonic canvas for Simpson’s texts.
But the thing that really makes it work so well is the great, grim, gory and at times cryptic story which detail the descent of the Urfe character from draining everyday reality into a grim other world called Locus Eyrie, that’s inhabited by all manner of deranged and strange creatures- with Urfe really taking a trial by fire journey through Locus Eyrie grim world. I wont detail anymore of the story as I think it will ruin the effect and often tense unfold of the tale- but trust me it’s grim, strange, gory and at times very puzzling. Really your attention is held completely and utterly for the whole of the albums hour and a half’s running time. This truly is one of the greatest horror concept albums yet up their with some of King Diamonds’ best work and of course the mother of all story based concept albums War of the worlds. And Post black metal wise this is up there in it’s focus and scope with the likes of Ulver's Marriage of Heaven & Hell
The only criticism that could be leveled at the album as a whole is at times Simpson spoken word’s are allowed to go too low in the mix, meaning you really have to strain your ears to make-out what’s happened in the story and this is not help by not having a booklet with all the lyrics/ story in which really is a must have for type of thing. Though thankfully it’s only say 10 to 15 % of the album that suffers from this problem.
It really depends on why you like Axis of Perdition, as to how much you’ll get and enjoy of this; if like me you find their atmospheric and dark surreal side the most compelling and rewarding side of their sound then you’ll be mighty happy in the intense grim and horrifying sonic story they paint here with bleak relish. But if you enjoy the more blacked metallic side of their sound-you may find this rather unfulfilling. All told Urfe is one of the dark highlights of the first half year and well worth your time and effort if you enjoy any concept based dark music- this really is the stuff of nightmares.