Monday, May 21, 2007

Furze - UTD

Furze - UTD: Beneath the Odd-Edge Sounds to the Twilight Contract of the Black Fascist / The Wealth of the Penetration in the Abstract Paradigmas of Satan
Candlelight Records

Furze creator 'The Reaper' is an odd fellow who fancies himself as not only as 'the One Reaper in the Music World' (whatever that means), but speaks in a language which I'm assuming only he knows what the fuck he's talking about. This whole release is weird.

Poorly recorded (at this juncture in the history of Black Metal the 'bedroom recording' is just plain unacceptable - overdone and rarely effective) fits of speed-picked notes and blasting drums (thanks to the contribution of Frost on this record) will suddenly shift gears into passages of avant-garde collections of notes and the occasional Celtic Frost doom march. At points, the guitars drop WAY down in the mix (attempting to emphasize certain vocal lines?) and the bass sometimes gets boosted to the point of blurring out the rest of the mix. Frankly, the record sounds like elements of early Burzum and Darkthrone with extremely weird flourishes, recorded on a cheap 4-track and played back at high-speed.

The tracks that comprise 'The Wealth of the Penetration...' are a bit more straight-forward, featuring a more Darkthrone-esque style and lots of rock 'n' roll riffing. Plenty of 'weirdness' can still be found, though, as well as overlaid vocals and thrashy drumming.

UTD is not breaking the mold by a long-shot, but it does provide an interesting listen. I can't say it will ever touch my stereo again, but it's definitely worth a nod to The Reaper for creating some unique sounds.