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There's always that new band that everyone's talking about, shoving in people's faces because they're some kind of lost treasure that deserve more attention. Endless spewing about "Why do people care about X, Y are way better!" and some such nonsense, often leading to ridicule, beatings and the odd coughing scoff from a portly englishman. Against all better judgement and my dislike for such characters, I've become such an example of such a rabid promoter for one such band -- this god damn one! Yes yes, we've all heard the "Its too good to be true!" and "Its a lost classic!" mantra before, so I'll skip it and dig right into one of (if not the best) of Gargoyle's first trio of albums.

You see, Gargoyle were never the type to just go for the usual thrash formula. They've always been toying with new ideas -- at the very start of their career there were already traces of psychedellic rock influence, as well as prog rock, funk and neoclassical. Where Misogi laid the foundation for this experimentation, Furebumi ramped things up a whole nother bloody ten notches and became something far beyond the expectations I had when I heard their debut. Oh no my friends, this is not typical at all. This is somewhat of a theatrical piece, a work with many movements and scenes of varying intensity and beauty. All moods are explored here: sadness, anger, fear, love, happiness and the rest of this peculiar cocktail of feelings.

But just how is this possible? Well, for starters, we set the scene by opening with far off, middle eastern sitar pluckings. This strange, almost psychedellic atmosphere builds up with some epic mid-paced galloping guitarwork as Toshi and She-Ja's strings interplay and build up into a wonderfully catchy and melodic power metal piece before Kiba begins his strange and warbly narrative in Japanese. Yes yes, he sounds absolutely ridiculous -- but you'll come to love that about him. Gargoyle care about showing pure emotion, and Kiba definitely delivers. He's dramatic, he's weird and he's even kind of silly at times (see: Naidzukushi), but he loves what he does. Eventually the opener comes to an end after a wonderful neoclassical solo and a brief return to the main riff. And indeed, at its base that's what Gargoyle are good at - ridiculously infectious riffs, superb solos and a flair for a dramatic, empassioned performance.

Of course, the prog isn't all you'll be experiencing on your journey through this twisting maze of insanity! See, like I said, Gargoyle are still a THRASH band, and boy oh fucking boy are there great thrash tunes to be found on here. After the strange and uplifting mix of prog rock, power metal and lurking thrash on "Tokimeki" (an old favorite of mine) comes one of Gargoyle's classics in the form of the audial onslaught, "Dilemma". This is a fucking awesome song of relentless thrashing riffs, a fiery yet still strange vocal performance from Kiba and a fucking CRUSHING thrash break before things suddenly calm into a beautiful latin acoustic solo before swinging back in with an incredible, almost Kreator-esque thrash solo that slices heads clean off. This song is a mainstay of Gargoyle's live set, and for good fucking reason!

Now, moving on through the labyrinth we encounter the brief uplifting funk/prog rock tunes of "Naidzukushi" (another uplifting piece) before we travel down, down downwards into a wet, dark pit. "Ruten No Yoni Te" is an eerie piece of ominous riffs, an admittedly somewhat grating falsetto performance from female guest singers (though it becomes more natural with repeated listens!) and some truly impressive work from the supporting violinist. This was their first venture into long and growing proggy tracks of a somewhat epic nature actually, and I feel it's quite interesting despite not being quite as good as the later prog epics they would churn out. Anywho, things suddenly open up into a pit of fire as we're given a brief thrash interlude in the form of "Execute" (an alright song, though insignificant in relation to the rest of the works on this beastly LP), which segues into yet another classic -- Halleluyah.

Now, Halleluyah is just plain awesome. This is one of those songs that you just know is going to kick pure, unhinged ass. It opens with this awesome oldschool thrash riffing before becoming strangely psychedelic and weird, then pummeling you back down with these crushing riffs and suddenly breaking away into a beautiful vocal line by the female guest singers before eventually coming down into an amazing piece of impending doom accented by all manner of flutes, crushing riffs and other nasty things before fleeing the hellfire in the form of an awesome uplifting solo. She-Ja's writing prowess really shines here, and again it's obvious why this song is a mainstay of the Gargoyle live set.

Now, after this truly impressive thrashing that we've been dealt, there are two more songs that I'd really like to bring to attention. "Tell Me True" is somewhat of a halfway point between a ballad and a heavy metal ball buster. More catchingly crushing riffs, the return of the violinists and yet another emotional (if warbly) performance from Kiba drives things to one of the most fucking awesome and passionate heavy metal solos out there. It's like the guitar is singing in Kiba's place, yet it has even more fire and feel to it. Throughout the song Toshi's bass intertwines yet again with She-Ja's delicious riffs, painting a picture of a desperate man defeating his inner demons and trying to win back his lover.

Finally, the album meets its end with the quick thrasher "Shoumetsu", with its infectious riffs, spectacular solo and catchy chorus (HAAARARARA SHOUUUUUMETSU, SHOUUUUMETSU, SHOUUUUMETSU!!) before fading back out to the same middle eastern ambience which greeted us at the start of our journey, finishing in a beautiful acoustic rendition of the opening song. Truly a musical journey that assured Gargoyle a spot in the annuls of Japanese thrash metal history, Furebumi is a showcase of the talents of all the original members collective skill and glory -- Toshi's intricate, playful yet personality-packed basslines. She-Ja's awesome variety of crushing and uplifting heavy fucking metal riffs (though they could be crunchier if given some heavier production; I feel they're a bit too low in the mix) and technically masterful solos full of feeling. Katsuji's BEASTLY assault, smashing all his drums with the force of an army to power the album along without ever letting up. Kiba's wonderfully wacky god damn vocals! Find and listen to this album, it is an incredible manifesto of this positively stunning band and could very well be the album that won me over as a full-fledged fanboy.

Highlights: Dilemma, Halleluyah, Tell Me True