Futility
Self Titled
6.5
As bands from more countries jump on the doom/death genre exemplified for so long by the Fins and Brits, Australia’s Futility have entered the fray, and while not while on par with long running country mates Mournful Congregation, the band's first self released full length album has some promise.
With a backbone that’s reminiscent of Novembers Doom stripped of its clean/ethereal moments as well as the expected early My Dying Bride influence, Futility delivers six solid tracks of despondence soaked misery, complete with some familiar Finnish layering and somber melody lines. It’s not as pristine or polished as the likes of Slumber, Insomnium, Swallow the Sun and such, but there are some decent moments that certainly imbue those bands and the members all have a grasp of the genre’s requisite moods and textures.
Even with the slightly shaky production and musicianship, the overall delivery certainly has the necessary ability to mix gruff loping death metal and rending, melancholic harmonies with positive results. Notably the opening duo of “…Failed” and “Saline Oasis” where everything comes together perfectly and the quartet seem to peak with the song writing and confidence. However, while the next four tracks don’t ‘come apart’ per say, it seems like the band simply runs out of ideas beyond those contained in the first two songs. The acoustics and blast beat of “My Sickness” is a tad awkward and seems to have no real difference from the two opening tracks. “Fallen” tries a little too hard to be a more stern pure death metal lope, but luckily the following track “Nothing” return to the more competent, rending, emotional style of the first two tracks. A fitting cover of Katatonia's “Murder” ends the album sort of abruptly without a letdown or sense of closure - a need for this style of album.
In all though a pretty decent self released effort that along with bands like Ever Forthright, Be’lakor, Brazen Bull and such shows self releases can be as godd as label releases. Sometimes better.
