Furor Lunae

My expectations are constantly on edge with this release because yes, I’m one of those guys who will choose not to listen to a band if they openly support things I don’t: racism, nationalism, misogyny, pedophilia, you know, all that fun stuff.  You can argue back and forth all day about how dope Arghoslent’s riffs are and how you just HAVE to hear them and how you’re taking the lyrics out of their historical context or some other ass-backwards goalpost shifting, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are more bands than you will ever hear in your lifetime that have great riffs and aren’t terrible people.  We have a ridiculously finite existence, so why waste that time listening to music that isn’t 100% dope? I get that Fanisk has some great, prideful riffs, but if you think that riffs are more valuable than your personal principles I don’t know what to tell you.

Enough rambling, how does this apply to the music? Well…take a look at some of the past projects the main guy behind Flamen has been in.  At first it looks pretty standard, couple of other black metal proj- oh, fuck, he was in a band called Aryan Art. Shit. Shit...alright, it’s okay, I can salvage this one.  Maybe Bartlett Green (guy behind Flamen) was just really good friends with Alexander Ivanov and they did each other favors for their respective musical projects at the time (Ivanov also played in Flamen briefly). That just raises further questions, though:  why are you so close with this guy in the first place? Okay, maybe they had a falling out and Green no longer follows a similar ideology...oh wait, Ivanov did a guest vocal spot on this very album I’m reviewing, I guess they do still talk. Fuck.

I don’t think I’m talking my way out of this. Bartlett Green, even if he doesn’t believe in it, at the very least hangs out with NS dudes. That is something you will probably have to reconcile in your head before you even approach this. If you do care about that kind of stuff, I would just avoid checking this out entirely, and if you don’t care about it at all, just disregard the above few paragraphs and check this out, cause it’s pretty good (also you kinda suck). I can’t just stop there, though, because there’s something else going on…

I spent a lot of time elaborating on that non-musical thing in an album review, but I feel it’s necessary. Not only is it nigh-impossible for us to divorce context from music, but said context informs the music of Furor Lunae as well. This is a very prideful and bombastic black metal album, taking tons of influences from folk melodies and classic composers, old myths, and as a whole the album is teeming with an Italian romanticism that you can see in many bands that emerge out of the Mediterranean (mostly the Italian and Greek scenes: Spite Extreme Wing, Spectral Lore, Handful of Hate, Akrotheism, I could name a few others) but black metal that comes out there is ridiculously melodic, perhaps even being the most melodic offshoot of the subgenre.  It’s very well executed for the subgenre, with lots of subtle harmonies and playful melodies, but something about it makes me feel…uneasy, and I had the feeling before I even realized Flamen might have some questionable ties.

As great as Furor Lunae sounds, something’s missing. The drums perhaps lack the necessary bite to drive things forward, but they’re programmed quite suitably and I like the way a lot of the drumbeats fit the riffs regardless. While there’s lots of fresh, major-key tremolo to lift you spirits, sometimes the songs feel a little bit too busy (especially considering their longer runtimes) although that’s getting pretty nitpicky saying that a song has too many good ideas. I really don’t have a lot of major reasons to dislike this, and even the qualms I can quantify seem pretty minuscule. Yet Furor Lunae still comes out less than the sum of its parts, and it’s a pretty drastic drop at that - the parts are spectacular and the result is somehow mediocre. Italian music tends to have a sort of subdued sense of national pride that shines through in the music, and maybe I'm just equating that and some sketchy ties to an uncomfortable National Socalist vibe?

Either way I guess something about Furor Kunae feels kinda…fake? Maybe “cheap” or “thin” is a better way to put it. This has a very lush, bright and, dare I say it, medieval atmosphere. The folk influence comes out most in the clean guitar parts, but I would liken the metal side of this album to Obsequiae - they’re dissimilar in many aspects, but an album like Aria of Vernal Tombs has a shimmering, delicate surface beauty in the production that makes it feel incredibly dreamy and airy for a metal album. Flamen’s got that same thing going on - this is by no means an album I would call “heavy”. Now, I listen to a shitload of blackgaze stuff so if anything this is the norm for me, but even within the style itself this feels a little bit too…joyous? The combination of the production style, the rich and constant melody and the vocals being a whispering non-factor, this just isn’t hitting me that hard despite some of the melodies being really, really nice. II has a really nice crescendo into a super high-pitched, bombastic black metal riff, but all the tracks have lots of uplifting meloblack riffs drenched in this archaic, I-wish-I-was-in-the-Middle-Ages sort of vibe. The distorted parts manage to integrate the “medieval” atmosphere in rather convincingly, and all of the songs flow and are full of good ideas…but I never feel emotionally gripped by it in a way that’s almost a given for black metal with a focus on atmosphere. This is unique and does the medieval theme well and is maybe worth a curiosity listen, but there’s been better black metal this year, and maybe hold off on giving this guy your money until we clarify his views on dudes that don’t look like him.