logo
  • Search
  • Log in / Join
  • FEATURES
  • Album Reviews
  • Live Reviews
  • Wrestling
  • News
RUSHONROCK logo
Lost your password?
  • FEATURES

    FEATURES

    See all
    • Record Of The Week: Cassidy Paris

      1st December 2023
    • Opening Night: Extreme

      29th November 2023
    • Red Hot Track Of The Week: Elles Bailey

      27th November 2023
  • Album Reviews

    Album Reviews

    See all
    • Record Of The Week: Cassidy Paris

      1st December 2023
    • RUSHONROCK RECORD OF THE WEEK: CRUCIAMENTUM

      24th November 2023
    • Black Water County Awash With Talent

      23rd November 2023
  • Live Reviews

    Live Reviews

    See all
    • Opening Night: Extreme

      29th November 2023
    • BYKER GRAVE FESTIVAL SENDS NEWCASTLE INTO HELL

      19th November 2023
    • 57th CMA Awards: The Wrap

      9th November 2023
  • Wrestling

    Wrestling

    See all
    • WWE: WORLD WIDE ENTERTAINERS

      23rd November 2023
    • JOHN CENA: RUTHLESS OR TOOTHLESS AGGRESSION IN 2023?

      18th November 2023
    • WWE Payback: The Wrap

      7th September 2023
  • News

    News

    See all
    • BYKER GRAVE FESTIVAL 2023 LINE-UP EXPANDS

      7th September 2023
    • More bands announced for Byker Grave Festival

      1st July 2023
    • IMPLORE TO HIT BYKER GRAVE FESTIVAL IN NOVEMBER

      18th June 2023
  • Trending

    Trending

    NowWeekMonth
    • STORMING RETURN FROM ACID REIGN

      1
    • Rushonrock Record Of The Week: Jack J Hutchinson

      2
    • WWE Crown Jewel Adds Natalya, Lacey Evans

      3
  • site logo

RUSHONROCK RECORD OF THE WEEK: UNDERDARK

Richard Holmes30th July 2021Album ReviewsEXCLUSIVE FEATURES

Underdark – Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry (Surviving Sounds/Tridroid Records/Through Love Records)

Underdark are unstoppable.

That’s what you’ll take away from Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry, the Nottingham band’s debut album.

They’re like a flare exploding across Britain’s troubled skies, a rallying call for the disaffected, a war cry for an alternative culture under threat.

They may be part of the UK’s burgeoning and increasingly diverse black metal scene, but Underdark’s ancestral spirits wear Crass, Conflict and Levellers shirts.

The Battle Of The Beanfield, the Poll Tax riots, the Greenham Common protests… those events might be fading from the national consciousness, yet the rage against exploitation, injustice and warmongering lives on.

There are new battles to fight…

On Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry, vocalist Abi Vasquez rages over the Grenfell tragedy (With Ashen Hands Around Our Throats) and the humanitarian crisis at the US/Mexico border (Coyotes), among other social and personal issues.

And Underdark’s singer wields a voice born in promethean fire.

From anguished shrieks to hellish death growls, she gives this record a serrated edge: one that many extreme metal bands would slay for.

Sonically, the quintet have raised their game even further since 2020’s Plainsong/With Bruised and Bloodied Feet – their first release to feature Vasquez.

Yes, intertwining glistening post rock with searing BM has been done before, but thanks to their dexterity, passion and vision, Underdark have forged a unique identity.

So if you’re thinking ‘British Deafheaven’, think again.

What’s particularly impressive is Underdark’s ability to marry complex dynamics and tingling melodies with a primal, eviscerating assault.

Coyotes, for example, evolves from a gentle, mournful intro passage into a tense, coiled spring of a song, before smashing down those border posts with a torrent of blastbeats and crashing, all-enveloping guitars.

It’s thrilling.

Is Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry a black metal record?

Cold shards of black metal are deeply embedded in this opus.

With Ashen Hands… and the album’s title track seethe with BM’s primordial pulse.

And thanks to drummer Dan Hallam, Underdark can fire on all cylinders.

Purists, however, will undoubtedly baulk at Underdark’s unshackled approach to musical extremity.

But if the echoes of Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky and Converge in opener Qeres are too much for some, then so be it.

Plainsong was a Cure cover, for Odin’s sake…

Underdark have a bright future…

The recent success of fellow British acts Dawn Ray’d and The Infernal Sea is proof that Underdark are entitled to aim high.

But they needed to back up their initial promise with something special.

Something that would cement their place in a UK scene brimming with potential.

And Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry is just that.

Brave, ambitious and unrestrained, this is one hell of a statement.

Band photo by Morgan Tedd.

2021Album Reviewblack metalOur Bodies Burned Bright on Re-EntryPost metalPost rockUKBMUnderdark

Share On
Tweet
Previous ArticleMcMahon Takes On America (Again)
Next ArticleRushonrock Red Hot Track Of The Week: Danielle Bradbery
Richard Holmes

Rich is a veteran of the heavy music scene and is widely considered one of the leading experts on doom, death and everything extreme. Rushonrock's deputy editor fulfilled the same role for HRH Mag and continues to forge a reputation as one of the UK's most informed and incisive metal writers.

Related Posts

  • Rushonrock Record Of The Week: Girl

    Simon Rushworth31st January 2020
  • Nine Shrines Retribution Theory album review

    Nine Shrines are out for retribution

    Russell Hughes18th April 2019
  • Rushonrock Red Hot Track Of The Week: Silver Lake

    Simon Rushworth29th March 2021
  • We Are Carnivores -Theodor's A Don, Bro Review

    REVIEW – WE ARE CARNIVORES

    Russell Hughes19th July 2016
  • Rushonrock Record Of The Week: Metallica

    Simon Rushworth28th August 2020
  • Parkway Drive - Darker Still album review

    Parkway Drive in seventh heaven

    Russell Hughes6th September 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recent Posts

  • Record Of The Week: Cassidy Paris
  • Opening Night: Extreme
  • Red Hot Track Of The Week: Elles Bailey
  • RUSHONROCK RECORD OF THE WEEK: CRUCIAMENTUM
  • WWE: WORLD WIDE ENTERTAINERS

Recent Comments

  • Pete Crozier on Tramp Tames Tyneside
  • Simon Rushworth on Exclusive: Luke Morley Interview
  • Pete Crozier on Exclusive: Luke Morley Interview
  • Simon Rushworth on Sam Fender Conquers St James’s Park
  • Andy Douglas on Sam Fender Conquers St James’s Park

Archives

Recent Posts

  • Record Of The Week: Cassidy Paris
  • Opening Night: Extreme
  • Red Hot Track Of The Week: Elles Bailey
  • RUSHONROCK RECORD OF THE WEEK: CRUCIAMENTUM
  • WWE: WORLD WIDE ENTERTAINERS

Recent Comments

  • Pete Crozier on Tramp Tames Tyneside
  • Simon Rushworth on Exclusive: Luke Morley Interview
  • Pete Crozier on Exclusive: Luke Morley Interview
  • Simon Rushworth on Sam Fender Conquers St James’s Park
  • Andy Douglas on Sam Fender Conquers St James’s Park

Archives

ROR Archives

Get Social

Latest

  • Record Of The Week: Cassidy Paris

    1st December 2023
  • Opening Night: Extreme

    29th November 2023
  • Red Hot Track Of The Week: Elles Bailey

    27th November 2023
  • RUSHONROCK RECORD OF THE WEEK: CRUCIAMENTUM

    24th November 2023
  • WWE: WORLD WIDE ENTERTAINERS

    23rd November 2023
 logo
  • Home
  • Advertising
  • RUSHONROCK – THE HOME OF ROCK
  • Contact Us
© rushonrock.com