Wednesday, May 22, 2013 07:49

Posts Tagged ‘Fell Voices’

FELL VOICES – REGNUM SATURNI 2LP (Vendetta Records)

Sunday, April 14th, 2013

This is something of a landmark release for Fell Voices as it’s the first one they’ve bothered to christen with an actual title. Their previous two full-lengths were self-titled and ‘Untitled’, while their 2008 ‘Demo’ and subsequent split with Ash Borer also carried no actual handle, as such.

‘Regnum Saturni’ showcases Fell Voices’ first new recordings in three years and is their first release to boast more than two songs. The three tracks on this album add up to almost 61 minutes so it would clearly be churlish of me to point out that there is nothing but a worthless etching on Side D. Except I just did. One of my pet hates, that, even if it is sometimes unavoidable.

I’ve been championing these guys for so long that I almost forgot how essentially underground they are. When I first started to listen to opening gambit ‘Flesh From Bone’, I was utterly taken aback by the dull, dense sound and the fact that the music was refusing to reveal itself fully to me. It’s not as instantly-catchy as the band’s previous work and I needed more time than usual to digest the album.

Eventually, the true brilliance of what Fell Voices does revealed itself to me yet again in blinding revelatory streaks of light or something and I realised that the Americans had conjured yet another awesome work of majestic, ambient, Cascadian Black Metal. Glad they have resisted the urge to sell out…

While I don’t consider ‘Regnum Saturni’ to be Fell Voices’ best work, it is nonetheless well worthy of its place in one of modern-day Black Metal’s most impressive discographies.

Evilometer: 555/666

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FELL VOICES – DEMO LP (Analog Worship)

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Regular readers of this website (i.e. myself and that American prick who keeps sending me hate mail) will know I have a soft spot for the incredible Fell Voices. Without doubt, this is one of the most mesmerising Black Metal bands to surface in the past decade and, true to form, this vinyl edition of their two-track demo cassette from 2008 hits the nail on the head.

I simply had to purchase as I already own all FV’s other releases on record and completion is essential for OCD sufferers, but I knew there was a slight risk in stepping back to the Cascadian campers’ pre-official-release days. However, I needn’t have worried unduly because – while the songs are undoubtedly rawer and less-refined than their more recent output – this is nonetheless exceptionally high-quality fare.

Side B – ‘In The Hands Of The Blind God’ – is utterly magnificent, easily on a par with the ridiculously-good tracks on the ‘Untitled’ LP, taking the listener off  in a multitude of different directions, while ‘Theobromo’ on the first side is the most primitive-sounding offering I’ve heard to date from Fell Voices.

Even though this is not an essential purchase (after all, it’s just a demo remastered and carved into black wax), it’s still ten times better than most of the so-called BM albums coming out these days and it runs for a generous 36 minutes. So I tip my hat to Analog Worship for excavating it from the vaults of time and guarantee prospective buyers that they can’t go wrong with this one. Or with any other Fell Voices album(s), for that matter.

Evilometer: 555/666

 

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FELL VOICES – UNTITLED LP (Gilead Media)

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Out of sunny California emerges one of the most obscure-sounding Black Metal bands you are ever going to clap ears upon. This album is titled ‘untitled’ and has been unleashed on vinyl by Gilead Media – not a label you’d normally associate with BM, which makes the pure quality of the record all the more remarkable. ‘untitled’ comprises two lengthy tracks, each clocking in close to the 20-minute mark and both stunningly eclectic.

To be blunt, this is such an awesome LP that it puts most Black Metal labels to shame. Fell Voices sound like a rawer, more lo-fi, deeper-in-the-woods, darker-than-a gypsy-soul version of the rather-excellent Wolves In The Throne Room. Now, I love WITTR, but I always felt they ruined their sound by including female vocals in some passages, so I’m glad to report that we have none of that here. The result is a purer, more distilled and more organic slab of darkness, creeping out of the undergrowth, wrapping its tendrils around you and sucking you into the woodland void.

This album is perfect in every way. Each bit of distortion, the crackles and hisses, the drone and the feedback, every note and every beat and every breath in the vocal delivery – it has all been put in precisely the right place, resulting in a rumbling, rolling behemoth of harsh yet ambient Black Metal majesty. The vocals are so far in the background that I almost suspect the singer was in a different room (or building); the overall effect of the music is so distorted and ‘barely there’ sometimes that the producer was either a genius or simply didn’t exist. If there’s a better produced raw Black Metal album than this available, I’d love to hear it.

Proceedings rarely move above mid-pace. They don’t have to. The feel of the album is more sinister, menacing and genuinely dark than an avalanche of speed. It’s all about dynamic, balance and finding the right counterpoints. Fell Voices are masters of their art. This is the kind of shit you can’t practise or fake. You’ve either got it or you don’t. Fell Voices possess it in spades and this 180g record – which comes complete with a pin, patch and poster for all you nerds out there – is an utterly compelling volume of work, pieced together by master craftsmen.

Evilometer: 666/666

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