Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Back in 2009, The Axis of Perdition, arguably one of the very few Black Metal acts to call the North East of England their home created what is still an astounding piece of work that has the ability to scare, deter and sound absolutely great all at the same time.

Urfe tells the tale of a man who journeys through a city that has become desolate and dangerous.  The rank stench of a humanity that become distorted and dank purveys throughout the album and its imagery that actor Leslie Simpson describes in a glorious like monologue is more akin to the final fall of man, something black metal excels in, and the desperation and bleak atmospheric and pungent despair.

Divided into two parts the album is work of yin and yang. Whilst both parts revel in the desolation that The Axis of Perdition capture, it is the second half of the concept album, The Great Unwashed, is where the music is at its zenith. That is not to say that the first half lacks any grandeur or music respectability, Leslie Simpson is an excellent addition to the outlay of the narrative, but it doesn’t compare with the mood-changer in the second half where the musicians earn their well deserved keep.

Urfe is unlike almost any other black metal/industrial album available, the vast majority of the spoken dialogue in the album gives it more than a narrative feel, it is almost as if C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien fell into a different company at Oxford and exchanged ideas based on an unintended acid trip with H.P. Lovecraft and the betrayed rantings of Bram Stoker. This chilling combination has the grace and wraithlike desire that chills the bones and also has the backdoor surmounting terror that makes this an excellent album of the genre but not one that listeners of a gentler persuasion should perhaps avoid joining in with, especially after dark.

Ian D. Hall