AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: UHTCEARU — “TOWER OF SILENCE”

Oct 192017

The Wisconsin melodic black metal band Uhtcearu self-released their second album, For Darkness To Subside, in late July of this year. As a DIY release with nothing more than word of mouth behind it, the album nevertheless garnered heaps of praise across a range of metal-devoted sites, both large and small, including our own, and it has justly elevated Uhtcearu’s profile as a band worth watching very closely. Sometimes quality alone is enough to carry the day, even in an age when it’s harder than ever for bands to be noticed in the absence of label backing or the persistent push of a PR apparatus.

But there are undoubtedly many listeners out there who still haven’t yet discovered For Darkness To Subside, and who would embrace the album if only it could be put before them. And that’s where this new video enters the frame as a vehicle for spreading the word further.

The subject of the video is the closing track on the album, “Tower of Silence“, and it’s accompanied by performance footage (and scenes of accumulating highway miles) taken from Uhtcearu’s 2017 Rite of Passage Canadian and East Coast tour.

I’ve written about the song before — it’s probably my favorite among a very strong collection of album tracks. It reveals the band’s talent for creating a dynamic and intensely involving sonic experience, one that here seems both warlike and mystical, devastating and defiant, blood-rushing and wistful.

It’s in part a vicious and abrasive tumult of jolting, slashing, and swarming riffs; raw, flesh-rending howls; and battering, booming, tumbling drumwork. And in part it reveals crystalline arpeggios and whispered words. The melodic guitar leads surge and pulse like a beating heart, providing a mixture of wrenching bleakness and fiery resilience — and the music surges to an explosive finale that’s hard to forget.

So, we hope this video and song will help introduce even more people to an excellent album, and to a band whose future endeavors will be well worth waiting for.