Uamh: Prairie Smoke

While folk is often defined as music for the people, it can also extend beyond community. Solitude and the environment, essentially the focal point of freedom, and that extends to creativity, as artists aren’t hemmed in by any structure or one set thing.

Montana’s Urisk Uaine is one of those artists, and since 2022 under the Uamh moniker, he has deftly amalgamated the principles of folk music with cascading forms of black metal. Uamh isn’t overshadowed by dark desires, though. If anything, there’s a peaceful disposition that underpins much of the Uamh canon.

With a series of EPs under his belt, Uaine returns with the second Uamh full-length release, Prairie Smoke. Follows 2023’s At the Edge of the Loch, from song titles to sound, thematically, Prairie Smoke sees Uaine guiding us through nature, juxtaposing serene locales with the kind surging gale-force intensity of sound.

With field recordings giving each song the clarity of Uaine’s vision, it starts with Rushing Water from the Glacier. Like a roar from the depths of the forest, Uaine’s representation of thrumming environment black metal is all earth and grit, as the cadence of sound rushes and hits like an inferno.

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Following is Shooting Stars, which sees Uaine turn down the pressure, with something more channelled into the groove. A combination of churning guitars and thumping kick drums, it’s something that makes the mind drift to the same places as listening to ambient-based composition. A world away from the darker frontiers Uaine explores, but with the subtle folk leanings underneath the mix, it’s these nuances that provide unique results.

So, too, Seated in the Snow, but with more cutting edge. Swiftly turning into the kind of atmospheric hard-nosed sound likened to an endorphin rush, with all bluster and metallic flashes and bangs, it’s black metal designed for high volumes.

Which feeds into the the withering title track. Beginning with slow, whining chords, Uaine frantically shifts gears, surging into the maelstrom with just under 12 minutes of glorious noise that splits the storm clouds. Utter sonic euphoria in what is one the best slices of black metal conceived this year.

It’s a majestic finish to an equally thrilling release. Ecstatic noise that forms beautiful imagery of the wide open space of his native Montana, while black metal has often been levelled with unwarranted criticism of being too primitive, releases like Uamh’s Prairie Smoke simply quash these notions. The light, outshining darkness, and if peace metal was a thing, then Uamh’s Prairie Smoke might just be it.

Prairie Smoke is out now via Fiadh Productions. Purchase from Bandcamp.