This may not be the most considered strategy, but I’m going to begin my review of UADA’s third full-length, Djinn, by saying it is not the album I was hoping for. Don’t get me wrong, it is by no means whatsoever a bad album – on the contrary, it’s a jaw-dropper – it just isn’t the direction I desperately hoped this Portland four-piece would take after 2018’s Cult of a Dying Sun shifted gears on their rapidly-established fanbase. You see, I may well be in the minority here, but UADA’s 2016 debut, Devoid of Light, was simply staggering: one of the greatest black metal albums I had heard in some time. Despite disparaging media comparisons to the likes of Polish powerhouse Mgła, I sensed the presence of a sleeping giant in the careful counterpoise between grit and atmosphere right from the ope...