Furia (Pol)
Plon
7.9
Furia play a style of black metal that I would often deem as lacking direction, but this young Polish collective manage to pull off their ambitious music with impressive results on this EP. While only fifteen minutes in length, Plon feels like twice that thanks to the epic songwriting and variety of innovative musical themes employed within.
The three songs here showcase some beautifully constructed layers of shimmering melody, balanced out by faster, more extreme segments. The unpredictable vocalizations are a high point in that they mostly eschew the expected screeches in favor of distinctive Darkthrone-esque shouts and desperate-sounding clean wails that effectively augment the dark atmosphere of the music. Furia show intriguing promise in their ability to seamlessly integrate almost post-rock influenced tremolo melodies with technically competent black metal fury, and the superb production delivers the deep instrumental textures with nary a blemish to be found.
Considering the flashes of brilliance shown in the more metal-oriented passages, I was disappointed to see a good chunk of Plon’s brief running time devoted to experimental ambient segments, which aren’t really delivered with the same engaging innovation of the heavier parts. In spite of this, this EP has interested me enough to investigate Furia’s back catalogue, and I can see this band really appealing to those who appreciate contemporary black metal that leans to the progressive side of things.
