Richard HolmesUprising – III (AOP Records)
“Brace yourself for what’s to come,” warns Uprising mainman W on this album’s finale. Perhaps he should have opened III with those words. For Uprising’s new opus is a raging torrent of vitriolic black metal which rails against injustice, wealth inequality and our headlong dash into environmental catastrophe. Its foundations are in desperate, 21st century reality, not occult fantasy. W’s demons wear suits and fly vanity rockets into space while the Earth withers and dies. Snippets of grim news commentary ram the point home.
None of that will come as a surprise to those who have followed Uprising over the past eight years.
II, one of our black metal albums of 2020, even featured a Jeremy Corbyn sample, to the undoubted chagrin of those who want to keep politics out of the scene.
Sonically, III inhabits a similar landscape to its predecessor. W – also known for his work in Bavarian black metallers Waldgeflüster – subtly blends ferocity and melody, and conjures the kind of arcing riffs that made I and II so powerful.
Uprising, however, has evolved.
Firstly, Panopticon’s Austin Lunn has added a crisp percussive barrage to the opus. The American multi-instrumentalist has brought a greater rhythmic dynamism to W’s work, something that’s obvious as soon as Eternal Mantra kicks in and kicks off.
The duo’s partnership that certainly makes sense, both musically and politically. The pair collaborated way back in 2016 on a Panopticon/ Waldgeflüster split, and are similarly revered for taking black metal in new directions, and enveloping it in natural beauty.
The other change is that W is now producing sharper, more muscular songs that are more identifiable as ‘anthems’, even within a BM framework.
“Uprise, for there may be no tomorrow,” he bellows on Uprise III’s towering chorus.
Then there are the sizzling sonic peaks of While The World Is Burning.
And on Message To The Hypocrites, W delivers his tirade with punky, crusty zeal.
The blackened architecture of these tracks is impressive, but so are their infectious hooks. It’s a winning combination.
Uprising force
Waldgeflüster have always felt like W’s ‘main’ band, and anyone who saw the Germans conquer Fortress Festival in June will be in doubt of that band’s primal mesmerism.
But Uprising is in the ascendency… and III is another powerful statement of intent.
Like the man said, brace yourself.
