For the benefit of the few readers who don’t have a degree in geology, a Halny is a warm, often destructive wind that blows down the valleys in the Carpathian mountains. Given that I was somewhat blown away by Furia’s last album, Grudzien Za Grudniem, it seemed rather fitting a name, and aside from that it fits in very well with the pine-scented impression they had previously left me with.
I suppose the conventional thing for a band to do is to record four tracks each of around five minutes in length for a standard EP, but Furia instead record one single 20 minute long track. So, what’s the difference then? Well no risk of any filler tracks but what you get is something that flows really nicely as one long piece but is broken up with acoustic passages making it a little easier to take in. The intro passage is very Floydian and quite reflective with strained harmonics and a guitar blowing through with a tropical warmth. It sways and gradually builds up until a metal sounding riff threatens to break out around the three minute mark. Here we are introduced to a real brazen melody that breezes through with a great swagger – the riff has a post-BM jangliness to it while the bassline is really thick and bumbling and helps the rhythm move along nicely. It doesn’t take long for this driving rhythm to come crashing to a halt.
Everything goes quiet and gradually in comes a real experimental passage – anyone who has ever been to a guitar shop and heard some bloke testing out an FX pedal with a degree of uncertainty will surely recognise this! I’m not sure that it’s especially a compliment, but it kinda works! That swaggering post BM riff keeps blowing in strong and then dying out again bringing back more experimental tinkering and then the pattern changes slightly with a slow, heavy guitar that seems to slow things down a little before everything is cranked up a notch as they take us to the finish line. Everything sounds bigger and angrier, thudding drums back up the blackened guitars and the impassioned Paganic yells sound great. There’s a bit too much messing around on this and I feel that they could have scaled it down by 5 minutes to make everything sound much tighter. It’s a minor complaint though and it’s an interesting listen nonetheless. Fans of Paganic black metal really should check out this band.
http://www.let-the-world-burn.org/
http://www.paganrecords.com.pl/files_uk/furia.htm
