Uada - Crepuscule Natura

Drawing upon an exhilarating black metal vision that has expanded progressively over the course of three full-length outings, Uada return with their fourth and most stylistically ambitious album yet. On Crepuscule Natura, the Oregonian metallers have carved out a vast musical narrative so wholly compelling that the idea of separating the work into distinct songs becomes arbitrary and irrelevant. Nominally split into five tracks, one may feel a tad underwhelmed — as if they were passing off an EP as an LP — but this is simply a case of quality over quantity.

Opener The Abyss Gazing Back initiates the proceedings with a simmering return to the band’s raw aesthetics. Blastbeats and lightning speed tremolo picking set the frenetic pace, but what begins to feel like a faithful rehash of 202o’s Djinn, takes a sharp temporal turn, veering into a thrashy cadence that seamlessly weaves back into churning waves of blackened riffs. Notably different is the track’s grittier vocal texture, which adds a sharp visceral edge to the track.

Uada's secret ingredient — that element that separates their sound from the genre’s cluttered landscape — is their dazzling use of classic rock guitar harmonies to add kaleidoscopic textures to their sound. It's a masterstroke of layering, where the dual guitars, slightly out of sync, create mesmerzing tapestries that wholly eclipse the more generic Dissection-worship favored by so many of their contemporaries The title track bears thrilling testimony to this and extra credit goes to Jake Superchi, whose crystalline mix adds layers of depth to each of the five tracks.

Lyrically, Uada remains as intrepid as ever. While the recurring refrain of Twilight Nature underscores the band’s commitment to cosmic voyaging, Retraversing the Void brings it home. Contrarily, The Dark (Winter) adds another dimension, delving into the murky waters of politics and the hostile beings that live deep within.

The denouement of this aural odyssey is Through the Wax and Through the Wane. Here, Uada beckon their faithful to take a nostalgic sojourn, with an unmistakable nod to their earlier sound. Yet, the journey is neither redundant nor regressive; rather, it unfurls with fresh progressions and captivating melodic intricacies, culminating in a thrilling psychedelic climax that drains one of all available seratonin.

With Crepuscule Natura, Uada have gloriously distilled their spiritual essence into something vital and familiar and used it to fuel this next stage of their evolution. This is, hands-down, their finest and most captivating work to date — an inter-dimensional sensory experience that stridently reaffirms their lofty perch in the upper echelon of American black metal.