Underdark – Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re-entry

Underdark – Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re-entry
Release Date: 30th July 2021
Label: Surviving Sounds, Through Love Records & Tridroid Records.
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Genre: Black Metal, Post-Black Metal, Blackgaze, Atmospheric Black Metal.
FFO: Deafheaven, An Autumn For Crippled Children, Harikiri For The Sky.
Review By: Ian Sky

Voir dire: (In my best Rod Serling voice.) Extrapolated for your perusal. Please find enclosed in a self-addressed, stamped envelope, the image of a lone driver with an propensity toward road rage. While cruising along in the passing lane at nominal speed, he was forced to curb his velocity because of another motorist. A motorist whose vehicle is currently straddling the dividing lines betwixt the passing and travelling lanes.  As our subject screams, ‘Pick a fucking lane, Mate!’, the offending motorist seemingly obliges and moves fully into the travelling lane. Whereby the vehicle is suddenly struck from behind by a speeding juggernaut. As our subject continues past the wreckage in the now clear passing lane, his own vehicle is hit from the side by a runaway train.

…And that, my friends and co-conspirators, basically sums up the sound of this album.

Opening statements: Once you have sorted out which one it is, of the eight bands that I found to be currently using the moniker, you might notice that this iteration of Underdark, from the UK city of Nottingham, is categorized as being “Post-Black Metal”. So, the first question I pose to the jury is… “Just what in the acutal fuck is that supposed to be?” 

Very much to my chagrin, this is apparently an active sub-strata of music with several performers counted among their ranks.

Regardless, as previously stated in the ‘Voir dire’, this release is not so much an actual album as it is a series of audio vehicular collisions. To the extent that I’m not sure if Underdark planned out these songs. Taking the time to write them cohesively or just set up a mic and jammed for a while before calling it a day and mixing each of the five sporadic jam sessions that comprise the body of work. Not that such methods haven’t yielded amazing results in the past… but whether or not those were the methods employed during the recording process of this album, such amazing results are not to be found on Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re-entry.

Also, why that title? Seriously. This is decidedly not some far-out, lo-fi, Satanic, nihilistic, anti-religious, anti-life and/or anti-cosmic descent into hypersonic Space madness… this is a garish, vain and vacuous attempt at something that very much wishes it was Black Metal. Don’t get me wrong, Underdark does provide parts on their debut effort that display their aptitude for playing various types of Metal and the fact that they are skilled musicians is clear. However, much of the album seems to be antithetical to the genuine article that is Black Metal. Furthermore, the atmosphere of the album does not feel cold or desolate whatsoever and no matter what, Black Metal should have a sound that feels like freezing to death.

Cross examination: It cannot be denied that the band members do put on a display of skill and have a prevalence for playing several styles of music. And yes, one of those styles does happen to be Black Metal. Guitarists Ollie Jones and Adam Kinson certainly know what they’re doing on the fretboard and provide the most enjoyable aspects of the band’s work. Which is supplemented throughout by the skillful and extremely precise drumming of Dan Hallam. But trouble comes into paradise shortly thereafter as the album features no really exceptional bass playing from Stephen Waterfield and is of a type that is so boilerplate at times that it gets lost among the rest of the music. Beyond that and by far the biggest problem I have with Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re-entry lies with performance of vocalist Abi Vasquez. When actually performing Black Metal vocals her work should be considered ‘up to par’. But with her haphazard attempts to go beyond the spheres of what seems to be her specialty, she only serves to negate the efforts  made by the rest of the band. It’s like staring into the mountainscape depicted on the album’s cover only to have a Hot Topic or Top Shop suddenly burst into the middle of the image. To no aid of any invovled are the lyrical themes which tend to be trite, convoluted, spastic and lacking in imaginative imagery. And the “scope” of Abi Vasquez‘s work on the band’s first official outing just brings to mind Jimmy Urine from Mindless Self Indulgence, first and foremost. Before she sadly makes the album’s closing track more profoundly reminiscent of something like Disturbed. And in case it was unclear to anyone, despite playing the same instruments, those bands are just about as far from Black Metal as it gets.

Closing arguments: It has been argued with great efficacy that not even 30 years ago, the first full-length Black Metal album, Darkthrone‘s A Blaze In The Northern Sky, was released. However Underdark‘s first full-length album only encapsulates about twenty percent of the feeling from the genre’s incredible inaugural release. There’s very little enjoyment to be had if you’re looking for something true to the source. That being said, I will go “on record” as stating that I do understand, enjoy and even encourage when certain bands (i.e., Skeletonwitch, Vreid and Aura Noir) use such defining traits as Black Metal for a base while venturing into other genres but, just as in playing any style of music, you have to maintain a tonic relationship to the roots in order to create an engaging production and provide satisfying results.

Verdict: This could be one of the contributing factors to why the bands that invented Black Metal are so disheartened with what it has become. As Darkthrone‘s Fenriz has said about the genre that he and Nocturno Culto perfected, “It’s out there. It’s everyone’s property… Black Metal is… it’s like a brand now.” Which unfortunately explains how these guys found it while shopping for Trapt CD’s at Tesco’s. 

For worse or better, this Underdark was obviously satisfied enough with this effort to officially release it… but make no mistake, this is not a solid showing what Black Metal is or should be. My advice to them… pick a lane, mates, and a more original name.

Additional: This was a Black Metal review and I am a Black Metal fan that has spent over two decades listening to Darkthrone, Burzum, Satyricon, Old Man’s Child, Mayhem, Thorns, Marduk, Impaled Nazarene, Ulver, Dødheimsgard, Gehenna, Windir, Destöyer 666 and Immortal. In proper conscience, I could not pull any punches. Black Metal is cold and vicious and that’s what this review had to be. For all the blood, fire and death that went into forging the Black Metal genre it should, at  the very least, be taken seriously when attempted or emulated.

(1 / 5)