Take the best elements of Anathema, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Type O Negative and you've got the gothic metal of Chicago's URN. Dancing with the Demigods is filled with gothic metal, laced with doomy guitar riffs and emotionally sung male and female vocals that'll bring tears of joy and sadness to your eyes. URN is not an easy listen by any means, as their style of dirge-driven goth metal will take at least several spins to make complete sense of what this quartet is all about. Shadow Dancer comes across as a darkened mixture of My Dying Bride meets early Paradise Lost, minus the growls, which makes the atmospherics of this song stand out even further - it'll make the hairs stand up on your back. And, the video for Shadow Dancer comes across as a musically-inspired trailer for a horror flick. This band has plenty of potential to go far, and only time will tell how much they'll conquer in the world of atmospheric, gothic metal. Check it out and feel the sadness.

Sarjoo Devani - Explicitly Intense

The latest album from the Chicago-based goth rock ensemble URN is a seamless mixture of darkwave, metal and hard rock. The band blends classic styles of old-school goth and heavy metal to create songs that quickly hook the listener with haunting keyboards and crunching power chords that give way to some smoking guitar work. Bassist ian Nothing and drummer Tracy Morrison provide the pulsating rhythm section, while the vocal duties are split between lead guitarist Dominic St. Charles and the sultry female tones of of keyboardist Sophia. Featured guest singer Michelle Belanger lends her beautiful soprano voice and original lyrics to several songs as well. Among the standout tracks, the seductive "Shadow Dancer" and "Fire Child" rise o the top, while "Cry Freedom", with its memorable Latin refrain, is an anthem for all oppressed artistic spirits. If you crave dark-tinged rock music, don your formal goth attire and go Dancing with the Demigods.

Russell Williams - Dark Realms Magazine

Drawing inspiration from the vampire culture, Chicago's URN offer up an 11-song journey into the darker regions of hard rock/metal. Something of a hybrid of TYPE O NEGATIVE and AMORPHIS, the core of URN's sound is rather straightforward and hook-heavy riffage, relying on keyboards and non-metal instruments like the flute and piccolo to add an interesting level of texture to the music. Throughout the disc vocals, duties are split between Dominic St. Charles (guitars), Ian Nothing (bass) and Sophia (keys, ect.), with the female tunes standing out as the album's better tracks. Sophia's haunting, siren-like voice gives the tracks "Shadow Dancer" and "Firechild" a chilling, ethereal quality unmatched by those penned by her male counterparts. Other standouts include the morose, folk-inspired "Passover" and the collaboration with occult author Michelle Belanger "Cry Freedom". /Dancing with the Demigods/ offers plenty of good material and is worth checking out.

Ryan Ogle - PIT Magazine