Bloodstock 2021 Band Feature: Urne
It’s been a damn good few months for Urne. The London trio not only released one of the best albums of 2021 in Serpent & Spirit but will also be part of Orange Goblin’s 25th anniversary tour as main support. Oh, and there’s the little thing of them playing Bloodstock!
(Personal editor note – easily in the top 5 of bands I can’t wait to see at the festival).
Urne might be a (fairly) new band on the scene but their members aren’t. Created by Joe Nally (bass/vocals) and Angus Neyra (guitarist) from the ashes of the much-loved Hang the Bastard, Urne arrived in 2016. However, it was when drummer Richard Harris came on board in 2018, that Urne really arrived. Releasing The Mountain of Gold EP independently.
Attention grabbing and exciting, Urne had made a mark but they were only getting started. On June 25th, 2021 they released their phenomenal new album, Serpent & Spirit. An album of the year contender that dealt with a weighty concept based around the central character’s struggle as he’s pulled between good and evil, darkness and light.
As Joe explained:
I had a bit of a bad patch for a few months. I’m absolutely fine now, but I drew on those two months where I just wasn’t feeling great. I took that and wrote a story based about that. The actual track-listing is done like that film Memento, where it’s all in a different order. Maybe one day someone will listen to the lyrics and work out which order the story goes in.
The album is called Serpent & Spirit. The spirit is the human experience, the serpent is the evil that tricks your mind. It’s about getting pulled apart and trying to find yourself within all of that. So, it’s almost good and evil, and throughout the album it’s about a person getting pulled from the light to the dark.
It’s an album that turned us into instant fans and we described it as:
(an album that is) impossible to not be pulled to the dark through the sheer delight that Urne’s debut album will create. If you’re a fan of mood-altering, focused heaviness and exciting twists and turns, then Urne’s slab of heaviness will make you very happy.
From heavy head-banging bursts to mournful and grandiose soundscapes, Urne’s darkness is spread far and wide. The pull to the light is strong but the gloom wins out, thanks to unexpected but captivating beauty. Two words you might not expect to read when it comes to an album that is still crushingly heavy. It just so happens that metal can make you feel when the band is doing it right and Urne are doing it so very right.
This is how you earn a slot at Bloodstock 2021. Hell, there are few bands on the bill that deserve it more. Take our word for it, you don’t want to miss this set. The band had this to say about it:
Picture Metallica: Live shit: Binge & Purge, Seattle disc. The lights go down, Blackened starts and you see Kirk and Lars walking to the stage…mood is set.
Well ours won’t be anything like that.
We haven’t played in over a year and the fitness is shot to bits.
But with the passion and love that people are showing this band and our new album ‘Serpent & Spirit’ and how many people have said they will be watching us at Bloodstock we know once that adrenaline kicks in we will give it our best and we feel this is our most important show as a band.
We will give it our all for 30/40 minutes and then recover for the rest of time..
The remainder of the 2021 looks to be a frantically busy one for Urne. Do not miss them when they take to the Sophie Lancaster Stage on Thursday of the festival. You can also catch them live throughout December as support to Orange Goblin!
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