Last-Minute Lies

A cursory glance at Fleurety's career history shows a five year gap between their first album ("Min Tid Skal Komme") and their second ("Department of Apocalyptic Affairs"). The sonic differences between those records are well documented. Less is known about what happened in between. My reading of the situation is that Alexander Nordgaren and some Fleurety session players took hiatus to record the excellent "I Left the Planet" session in 1996. They re-combined with Svein Egil Hatlevik a couple of months later to record under the Fleurety banner. The resulting EP (“Last-Minute Lies”) was recorded in two sessions in 1996/97, but not released until a couple of years later.

Musically, this EP sounds like the middle ground between the first two Fleurety albums. The ‘vibe’ is similar to the debut (a cold guitar sound and plenty of evil, nonchalant metal riffs). The big difference is the lack of harsh ‘black metal’ vocals. These have been replaced by clean-sung female vocals, some of which have the warbling, haunting quality heard on "I Left the Planet" (the singer on "Vortex" also sang on that session). Most of it sounds like a darker, proggier and more menacing version of the Cocteau Twins. “I See Claws” has hints of the direction the band would take on their second album (e.g., some minor experiments with electronics, odd timings and proggy solos). Luckily, the band kept these eccentric indulgences curtailed.

The earliest song ("Vortex") is the standout. This song continues what the I Left the Planet project finished (minus the powerhouse drumming and the chaotic derivations into spoken-word poetry). The smooth tempo, harsh chords and eight-minute duration are all coherent with the first Fleurety album. My favourite part of the song is when the middle instrumental section (reminiscent of the intro of "Seasons in the Abyss") blends into some relaxed saxophone playing. There is a good balance between dissonance and purity throughout. This provides an underlying sense of threat; it feels like the black metal screeching could emerge at any point, but it never does.

This EP is an interesting part of the Fleurety story. It might not be an essential part of the Norwegian avant-garde black-ish metal canon (given the strength of the competition). It isn’t as seminal or as consistent as “Min Tid Skal Komme”, nor as creative and interesting as "I Left the Planet". Still, Fleurety fans who were deterred by their second album should seek it out. This is music that only Fleurety could have made, and therefore deserves more credit than it gets.