Thursday 8 December 2011

Furia - I Krzyk

Furia - I Krzyk (Self release demo CDR 2005)
Not only Norway (for all the respect I have for some of their best bands), can spit out quality atmospheric black metal, which is so cold that it may freeze the blood in veins and furious that it ruins the church near you. Take Furia from instance... They're Polish and man, they do know their shit well. I've been watching their "career" from the beginning, as a zine editor I've been getting their every release... and I must say it seemed like they came out of nowhere - all of a sudden attacking with two demos in short period of time. Of course they're not from nowhere, as the band members were all playing also in Massemord... But I didn't even fully recover from Furia's debut demo "I spokój", which I liked a lot, when they unleashed a second effort - "I Krzyk", which is just 666 time better, reaching the quality reserved only for the best black metal bands.
The title song is one of the best ones ever to come out from the Polish black metal scene, really! It overwhelms with great riffing and the atmosphere. During its nine minutes Furia diversify it quite a lot, going to such extremes as fast black metal followed by soft, almost post rock like mellow guitar melodies, which by the way fit the atmosphere of the music perfectly. There's even folky Kampfar-esque riff at 7:30 to make "I Krzyk" even more interesting. "Cisza" is one fast and damn fast forward track, which I think has quite a lot of similarities to Sacrilegium's "Wicher", only it's way better recorded. The song is aggressive, the drumming mostly fast and the vocals furious as hell.
Then there's "Skrajna Nienawiść Egoistycznej Egzystencji", which is Arkona cover - a band I've never been a fan of, for many reasons... Anyway, this song is from the only Arkona album that I have in my collection ("Imperium"), so I know the original and actually it's pretty decent... Furia played it well, it sounds better than the original, so it's cool. I like the way Furia done the vocals here, as they're like the howling of tormented souls - absolutely inhuman.
If there's anything wrong about "I Krzyk", it's that it has only four songs - "Śmierć Ludzkości" is the final anthem. But from the other hand, the material is almost 30 minutes long, which is not bad for a demo anyway. Each song is over 5 or 6 minutes long... "Śmierć Ludzkości" is 06:51 and it has some of the best fragments on the demo. The great, Taake-like mid paced beginning brings that cold, gloomy atmosphere I love. And the vocals in that part... Man, absolutely fantastic! Clearly the band progressed since the first demo and their ability to play long, instrumental parts is better and better, what is proved on this song.
Putting all these things together, "I Krzyk" is worth getting for any price. I know it used to be pretty unique release, as there were not so many copies spread at the time of its release (I'm lucky to own an original copy, number 109), but only recently this demo has been re-released by Malignant Voices in 600 copies, so you just must get it now, before it's too late. Absolute must in your collection...!
Final rate: 93 / 100

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