Style: sludge metal, heavy metal, thrash metal, metalcore (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, Gojira, Lamb of God, Trivium, Rivers of Nihil
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 30 January 2026

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A thin, pale creature emerges from the safety of its cave. The sunlight stings its eyes. Tripping over the picked-clean and discarded bones of those it has consumed, it surfaces, and yet despite the creature’s deftness below the earth, it is wary. The above-ground is dangerous. Rivers of Nihil flow. Lumbering Behemoths and Mastodons roam the land, and the horizon reaches up to Swallow the Sun each passing day. Be it by Blood Incantation, An Abstract Illusion, or the fabled Zenith Passage, scarce few have attempted to leave the dark, safe underground and even fewer have lived to tell the tale. Aware of the dangers ahead of them, URNE have chosen to leave the underground behind with their newest release Setting Fire to the Sky. Employing a healthy dosage of clean vocals, a heaping of pop choruses and verses, and a shimmering coat of radio-friendly production, their latest album is apparently built for the big leagues, but can it truly rival the likes of Gojira, Lamb of God, and Trivium?

What was once a gaunt and mutated amalgamation of different metal subgenres on the band’s sophomore output, A Feast on Sorrow, has evolved into a lean, mean metalcore machine. Across Setting Fire to the Sky, chugging riffs abound, the fat and beefy guitar tone serving each riff well. While the URNE still wear the self-ascribed label of sludge metal, that tag seems to only remain out of association rather than any substantive quality of the music itself. For the most part, the band chugs along in true modern metalcore fashion: verses employ harsh vocals while the riffs stay out of the way; with the choruses come catchy cleans that sound a bit like every member of Mastodon combined¹; and solos enter on schedule either in bridges or to epic-ify a final chorus. URNE manages the shift towards this more mainstream sound fairly well. Choruses on “Weeping to the World” and “The Spirit Alive” are sticky, and the riffs on tracks like “Be Not Dismayed” and “The Ancient Horizon” get my head moving.

Unfortunately, for each positive change that came with this stylistic shift, there seems to have been a corresponding downturn. The most egregious of these errors is the predictability of the song structures. Across its first half, Setting Fire to the Sky sticks to the tried-and-true like doctrine, not a single verse or chorus out of place. Some tracks even go so far as to have breakdowns that, while not identical, operate along incredibly similar axes with their shifting drum beats and unchanging riffage; I’m looking at you, “Weeping to the World” and “Setting Fire to the Sky”. Blessedly, the album shakes things up in the back half, allowing some longer tracks and varied dynamics to give their ideas some room to breathe. It’s not a crime to write a simply structured song, but I definitely don’t want to hear more than two or three of them in a row.

To URNE’s credit, they do manage to get a lot right on Setting Fire to the Sky. The production is top notch, the drums punchy and the bass sounding more like a rattling china cabinet than an instrument—and I mean that in the best way possible. Additionally, the occasional accoutrements of cello and piano on “Breathe” or trumpet on “Harken the Waves” are much appreciated in keeping what is already a lean album varied. In fact, the album’s length is one of its most positive aspects, making it sound more Hushed and Trim thanks to the obvious Mastodon comparisons.

Ultimately, Setting Fire to the Sky feels less like a daring exodus from the underground and more like a carefully mapped migration. Instead of bursting into the sunlight gnashing their teeth and ready to swing, URNE have packed provisions, studied the terrain, and built something structurally sound enough to survive in. Survival, however, isn’t dominance. For every genuinely tuneful chorus or neck-snapping riff, there’s a moment where the band seems content to follow the game trails of bigger, bolder acts. Still, there’s no denying URNE have transformed in order to make the above-ground their home. Where some will see growth, however, others will only see compromise.

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Recommended tracks: Towards the Harmony Hall, Harken the Waves
You may also like: Witch Ripper, Pupil Slicer, Conjurer
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Spinefarm Records

URNE is:
– Angus Neyra (guitars)
– Joe Nally (vocals, bass)
– James Cook (drums)
– Kurtis Bagley (guitars)
With guests:
– Troy Sanders (vocals on track 7)
– Jo Quail (cello on track 8)

1. You’ll be particularly confused during the Troy Sanders feature on “Harken the Waves”. ↩︎