The First Sign of Life

Fangor started back in 1999, but their activity has been limited to the release of 2 demos in the first decade of their existence. Their sound, described on their M-A profile as ‘melodic/epic Viking metal’, contains few Viking elements here and there indeed but they clearly developed themselves further into a more avant-garde-like sound, by which term they describe themselves on their MySpace page. I am not familiar with their first demo, but I can see why the term avant-garde applies to this promo.

Right in the first track ‘Breaking Thoughts’, we come across a very extraordinary element. While the track kicks off with melodic death riffing and pretty technical drum work, it breaks down into an intermezzo around 1.30 minutes: growls are replaced by whispers and heavily distorted metal riffs turn into clean chord-strums. It’s not long before Fangor returns to their melodic death approach, but this sort of intermezzo returns several times, each time a bit more elaborate than the previous. Now it’s a fact that clean intermezzos aren’t surprising in most kinds of metal, but this is extraordinary because it sounds exactly like Mexican country guitars, in an up-tempo, energetic way.

Other wonderful deviations are found in the form of piano melodies and outro’s, and especially a very interesting part near the end of the third track, where the drums take it easy and the band exchanges the distortion for synthesizers and a bass guitar that kinda does its own thing. In between, moody, spoken vocals meander through the atmosphere and eventually an electric guitar returns with an emotive, gentle solo before ending the song in this way.

But of course, there’s more to Fangor than those peculiar influences. The guitars feature a reasonably heavy sound but it’s a bit of a pity that not all of their riffs are of the same level. There are excellent, catchy and worthwhile leads on this release, but not as much as I would like to hear. Most riffs are above average but sometimes it sounds as if the lead guitar is missing and we only hear the rhythm part. The style could best be described as melodic death if I have to put a label on it but that still doesn’t cover it at all.

Drum lines aren’t very prominent in the mix but sure are cool. They are a lot more than just supportive and really add to the music. There’s appropriate variation and they get very technical at times. The flaw here, if that’s the right term, is that the snare, bass and toms are too soft while the cymbals are clearly audible. It would’ve been nice if this was a bit more balanced.

Vocals are also a bit of a weak point. There’s a lot of dual vocals, which is not bad, but neither one of the voices is to write home about. Both are mid-ranged death growls with enough power but it’s just something in the sound that they lack. I have reason to believe that this is caused by the production, since I have seen them perform live and it was clearly the same guy but with a much better growl. Too bad this doesn’t show on ‘The First Sign of Life’, but then again, let’s not judge a promo by too high standards. Bottom line: both musically and production-wise this still is an excellent release and clearly above average.

I’ve come to the conclusion that this is best described as avant-garde metal indeed, since they integrate totally different genres into seamless whole and the fact that most of their riffs have a death metal feel to them, but still aren’t clear cut death or melodic death. Fangor already has a distinct, unique sound and I’m therefore very excited to see what they’re gonna bring us in the future.