I, Pestilence

For creepy and cold atmospheric introductions, I doubt that many bands can match French BM band Feigur's "I, Pestilence" - this album is a real model of hateful misanthropy, whether in its spine-chilling ghost vocals or the sometimes doomy bass-heavy music. The ambience on most songs is enough to freeze the air around you solid. Here's a recording where vocals, guitars, drums and keyboards are truly in service to the music and the unsettling sonic universe it creates and sustains - for a short while at least.

Intro track "Forêts de brume" has a slightly steamy atmosphere, perfect for the malevolent brooding vocals ruminating over and over on matters dark and dismal. The song could have been better if it had been longer and the piano fade-out worked into something more meaty and substantial that matches the earlier, almost drone-industrial steaming part of the track. "Innocence" gives a mini horror-movie soundtrack impression of a giant reptilian demonic presence languishing at the bottom of a giant sink-hole - the tension and the horror lie as much in the dank cavernous ambience as in the possibility that this entity might eventually come out into the light - but again the track is much too short and its potential for true horror remains unrealised. "Memories" has a great edgy raw guitar sound and for once the mournful looming synthesiser sounds (not the most original melodies in the world) in the background actually work in the track's favour as a counterpoint to the wailing banshee vocals and the bristling guitar tones - but the song is very repetitive and peters out without anything happening that would take the song far from where it began.

The best and most developed track turns out to be "The Suicidal Perfection" - it's also the longest, which highlights what I've said about previous tracks being too short for their full potential to emerge - for its hellish atmosphere and production, and for the way all the instruments and vocals work together to achieve a distinct style of music and ambience. The vocals act as much as a distinct musical element as a messenger of hate and bearer of humanity's demise. The slow doomy bass-heavy rhythms convey impending disaster steadily and surely, and pile on the tension and fear. The song achieves a level of epic majesty as it builds up towards what must be a devastating climax ... but again, the damn thing is too frustratingly short!

At least while the album lasted, I was far off in a world of extreme and unspeakably frigid cold isolation, a world where to survive one must succumb to derangement and hatred, a world where one's only companions are also twisted and insane. A kind of beauty or elegance, dark and demented though it might be, exists in the depths of the music. Unfortunately the songs are not long enough, and the music is too repetitive, for their qualities to be fully developed and recognised.

The first release of a band is often a two-edged sword. Seldom is it able to transport the ideas to full amount and especially young bands find it quite challenging, to be somehow euphemistic, to create music on a average level and to compensate flaws they have to deal with; due to their lack of professionalism and experience. Rather the exceptions are bands, whose first outputs already offer an astounding quality that might foreshadow on what to expect from this artist respectively group in the future. You guessed it… Feigur would be one of those bands that come out of the nowhere and have launched a release that is simply really quite enjoyable.

After a good deal of listening I began to appreciate this demo more and more and would it not be a band that has recently started their musical career I would tend to give it an 85+ rating undoubtedly. Not because the music is extraordinary in its respect, not because the band has created an innovative piece of music that might influence other bands to do the same; simply because here the ingredients come together to form a unique kind of (depressive) Black Metal and to create an atmosphere I have seldom heard by any Black Metal band in this particular style. Some facets make it different from the rest and with some further elaboration the band would surely be able to gain some broader attention in the Black Metal scene.

As already stated, the music of Feigur does not invent Black Metal anew. A lot of repetition on the arrangement of the elements, a quite monotonous and hardly to distinguish bass-drum, a harsh voice… all of this is well known and the sheer number of bands who use these elements in such a manner would easily reach the total of a legion. Whereas nothing out of the ordinary routine is offered, there should be something special about this band to justify such a rating; and such a long review. Well, it is the atmosphere that, like saffron adds a special note to a cake, enriches the music with a somehow unique facet; to the good or bad. Nevertheless there are instruments that need to create it and in respect to this Promo, the combination of keyboard and guitar textures in the background together with the voice, guitar riffs and the snare drum form the right mixture to create such. Variation is placed at the right terms, the monotony is not overstretched and can be endured and the vocals have not the metallic sound like Xasthur or Kraft or the extreme distortion the Italian band Morbifer used; the screams and croaking style works quite well and the performance is not extraordinary but adequate. Most of the music is of course rather slow and the switches between segments in the songs is also rather low.

There is something I would not criticize, but what I like to see changed on future recordings. Feigur tends to use a lot of vocals and to dominate the music entirely through this. Even though it ‘works’, some less would be better, because it would help to create a darker and even more desolate atmosphere. Furthermore is it very likely that too much vocals overstretch it a little bit and the instruments have to challenge them in order to support the atmosphere. Therefore would some sort of balancing between the vocal parts and their impact on the music would have a positive effect on it. Even though The Suicidal Perfection is of an astounding quality, some of the potential has been thrown away by adding vocals over its whole length; a dark croaking voice, speaking as well as screams. What else? First I was a little bit bored by the sound and the production, but after a while I began to admire it and rather perceived it as fitting and adequate. By confronting the band with the former fact – I did this before writing this review as a short response on the demo – I was informed that the whole sound is supposed to be this way. Nevertheless would some sort of constancy in terms of the production and sound be a nice thing to hear. Forêts de Brume and Innocence are quite different in this respect; on the latter one the keyboards and the cymbals are far more in the foreground. I would also like to point to the mixing of the vocals, as they are often too dominating, while the keyboard textures are too much in the background. Something like a clearly recognizable bass-drum would also be a neat thing. Yet, these are mainly minor aspects, as the music is quite good to listen to.

The whole demo is quite good for a first step… Forêts de Brume would be the weak spot of the album as it does not possess the atmosphere and quality the other songs do; even the instrumental is better. Hard to say what exactly is annoying, but especially the first part of the song with its haunting screams could have been better, yet the song improves over the time and can still be described as decent. Strid and Burzum have played a major role in terms of the influence on this demo and the inspiration taken from their art has been quite well interpreted. The genre the band chose – depressive Black Metal – might be misleading as a lot of bands are in the scene, who claim to play music in this particular style, never ever reach any quality in their recordings. Atmosphere is simply absent in their recordings and they are never or seldom able to grab the listener’s attention or motivate someone over a longer period of time to listen to their plain recordings; in respect to Feigur it is rather the contrary. The next recording might show if the band is able to write music on this high level again and where the road might take them. The first step is being done and now the whole idea should be evolved further and even more improved.

Short:

Performance: depressive Black Metal with influences of Strid and Burzum
Production: there balancing between the songs could have been better.
Song-writing: very monotonous arranged songs with a lot of repetition of elements.
Annoying: small aspects; consistent production, a bass-drum
Length: 21:23 minutes
Booklet: None, promo copy.

Track-rating-system:
(---;--;-;0;+:++;+++)
1 +
2 ++
3 +++
4 +++
5 +++