ALBUM REVIEW: Cult of a Dying Sun – Uada

UADA are a US black metal band whose debut album Devoid of Light was released in 2016 and drew widespread attention, both for its competent compositions as well as it’s similarities to another popular act whose popularity had exploded at that time, which wasn’t helped by the similar stage garb adoring both acts. Despite this, the band have toured heavily for the past two years, playing territories where other young bands would struggle to make a mark and gaining themselves a multitude of fans. Two years later they’ve followed with their sophomore release, Cult of a Dying Sun.

While the cover art may be very similar, the music is arguably not. Opener The Purging Fire is immediately into the action with very little let up aside from a short bass interlude throughout before winding slowly down towards the end. Snakes and Vultures is at first enjoyable and shows a band who are attempting to bring different ideas into their sound, with harsh shouts replacing the vocals at some points as well as clever use of tempo changes. However the track simply goes on too long and these ideas begin to feel stretched throughout its running length. It’s unfortunate as if a couple of minutes filler was cut off the track, it would significantly improve it.

Cult Of A Dying Sun is a mid-paced song and again shows example of the band attempting to deviate from its predecessors formula. With an upfront guitar solo as well as variance in the vocal style for more of a howl. There are certainly great moments in the track with the final three minutes being some of the best on the album, but again a slightly expanded length drags the entire song down. The Wanderer is an instrumental interlude, which can’t help but feel inspired by other acts who have done similar things recently, as the band’s lack of spiritual influences leaves the track feeling pretty but hollow.

Entering the second half of the album, Blood Sand Ash revisits some of the idea’s touched upon previously as well as having a truly triumphant main riff that is far too hidden at the beginning and end of the track. However this unfortunately leads to a very long and drawn out middle section which struggles to offer enough unique ideas to maintain interest. Sphere (Imprisonment), introduces a piano for the first time towards its end in a moderately jarring manner and despite having several solid guitar leads, ultimately the track feels superfluous on an album already struggling to have enough ideas to go around. The album’s closer and longest track Mirrors perfectly exemplifies the entire album. While there are good ideas and some brilliant lead guitar work on offer, it’s sheer length, lack of tempo changes and similar song structure to the rest of the album make it difficult to pick out any highlights.

While above is mostly negative, that is perhaps doing UADA a disservice. Cult of a Dying Sun is certainly not a bad album. However you can tell the band have deliberately attempted to introduce new elements into their sound as an attempt to differentiate themselves from similar acts. Due to the album’s far too long runtime these new ideas and indeed its other standout moments become stretched and struggle to make the impact they deserve too. A shorter, less forced and more compact record would have made a much bigger impact.

Rating: 7/10

Cult of a Dying Sun is set for release on May 25th via Eisenwald.

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