Drab, bleak and moody it may have been but I really enjoyed last album ‘Wounds’ from this duo comprising of (along with guest drummer) Tiffany Ström and Syd Scarlet. Either they like travelling or can never particularly settle as they have moved around a lot. The Swedish born lady and English gent relocating from Brighton to Glasgow and since the last album upping sticks completely and relocating to Belgium. This obviously did them some good as it got them playing various prestigious doom festivals such as Roadburn in Europe and was where their label Consouling Sounds are based. Well, it may not have lasted long as now we find them in Germany and with Prophecy Productions taking yet another step forward.
The most noticeable one between the two albums is that of production. Compared to ‘Wounds’, ‘Let The Earth Be Silent’ does not particularly live up to its name. It sounds huge and I was playing the older album on CD via a decent stereo system and this as it arrived via download on a much less powerful PC set-up. After slowly ebbing in, part way through opener ‘Ashen Era,’ there’s what sounds like a seismic eruption in sonic ballast and thick clouds of smoke are forcefully belched out. From there we get little in the way of silence. At first it took some acclimatisation as what I liked so much about ‘Wounds’ was the more delicate caress which gave the music a haunting quality. This abrasiveness packed with surges of instrumental distortion lacks little in the way of such finesse. Still the vocals from Tiffany rise above it all and still have that chanting, siren like, ethereal quality about them which is what drew me, as I said at the time, to this originally, like a moth to a flame. I perhaps didn’t expect to have my wings set on fire here though by the instrumentation, have you ever seen a moth combust? It ain’t pretty.
I guess I am a bit critical here but that doesn’t mean the outfit are doing anything wrong. They are likely to catch more attention with the heavy drone that fills the spaces here and if it’s not that there is something else. For instance, on ‘Annihilation’ it sounds like a swarm of flies invading a certain malevolently possessed manse in Maine giving things a bit of a vile and evil quality in the process. I guess by doing this they are still haunting me. Essentially, I have struggled to find songs in the hefty sprawling soundscapes here compared to the last album. It’s still very moody as it drifts along but there’s not as much memorability within it compared to perhaps that of labelmates Darkher. Still, it’s quite filmic at times and would make a particularly tense and scary score on a horror film. It will also deafen and disorientate live. I get the feeling by album and song titles such as ‘Annihilation’ and ‘Barren’ that there is a message and inner narrative here. The constant turmoil of sound suggests a planet tearing itself apart in ecological discomfort and if that is what it is Fvnerals have certainly expressed themselves musically in that direction. Even short instrumental ‘Rite’ is palpably ominous.
Don’t get me wrong, for all my criticisms this is not a bad album by any means. I guess that I just preferred the last one more and perhaps have gone and overthought things here. Fvnerals have without a doubt grown and in doing so they will attract more of an audience due to the unquestionably heavier side of things. Fair play to them too!
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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