Fæmin

Process of Guilt is easily the best band Portugal has ever offered the world. Their debut was a breath of fresh air, with its melodies, simple yet smart compositions and excellent production. These guys were in a league all their own when they decided to reinvent the wheel six years later with their third album.

This is a completely different band. Gone are the subtle melodic nuances and somber beauty. The lilting, soft and romantic sheen has been stripped away. What we have is a blunted and bitter cadre of headbangers firmly rooted in reality. This album is dirty and ragged, yet a wholly formidable player in the doom/death metal field. The realism of the perceived end times message and the straightforward spitefulness of the music just kicks ass.

Even the artwork is striking in its presentation of death. The gentile abstract visions of old are utterly forgotten when you gaze upon this albums cover. The lyrics are far more apocalyptic than the bands prior efforts, which leads to the question, what are they preaching exactly? The imagery leads one to further questions as the band employs the double cross (or perhaps the double dagger?) as their new symbol.

Overall, the album is very avant-garde in every aspect as darkness and hopelessness run amok. This is their shortest offering but it's plausibly their heaviest. There is a distinct repetition in the songs that gives the songs a despondent feel. Two to three riffs droning on and on in each song, but tastefully. You don't need to worry about Saturnalia Temple's ultra repetitive bullshit here. On the band's prior releases the guitars have very thick distortion. Some of that is found here, but also a dry and over driven sound is heard. Ultimately helping to give the album a rawer edge.

In conclusion, this album is amazing verging on genius. How they will top it is unknown.This type of reinvention is very hard to do and it will be interesting to see if they can do it again.

Came across Process of Guilt by happy accident after hearing and reviewing a split Caina / White Medal EP and then discovering that Caina had also done a split recording with these guys from Evora in Portugal. "Faemin" is the band's third full-length and consists of five songs which dwell on and explore states of mind and being such as emptiness and despair. The songs have one-word titles which taken together separately from the lyrics might suggest a narrative of sinning, reaping the consequences of sin, doing penance and achieving a state beyond ... which turns out not necessarily to be grace.

"Empire" is a grand opener to the album, heralded by long drone, a repeating ringing riff and immense thundering percussion beats. The song builds up slowly and steadily, ratcheting up the tension and atmospheric intensity with deft changes and variations in the beats, and occasionally dispelling unease through crashing cymbals and accompanying guitar slash riffs. The vocal is raw and roaring when it appears but much of the track is instrumental. There is just enough guitar in the background in the song's first half to lend an edgy, abrasive noise texture to proceedings, otherwise that part of the track is almost completely dominated by percussion. Suddenly the tension breaks forth and guitars and drums literally gush out with force and pent-up fury and vocalist Hugo Santos roars out his anger.

The harsh guitar noise textures continue into "Blindfold" which is a plea to face the truth of one's existence and discontinue living a life based on lies, greed and cowardice. The percussion is strong and seems to encourage the rest of the music to flow. Now lead guitar is allowed to soar high in piercing anguished tones. After a steady climb, the climax erupts in wave after wave of guitar molass driven by rolling drums. The track ends on a prolonged guitar feedback drone that links to "Harvest", a stately dark piece with a screeching guitar feedback echo in some parts and a screaming vocal amid rather more laid-back drumming than what's gone before and a harsh steely guitar noise layer. The lead guitar has a slightly wobbly tone that introduces a slight feeling of fear and impending horror.

"Cleanse" appears to be a warning of doom to those of us who continue living by falsehood: the song is suitably doomy in its use of space and echo to sculpt the guitar tones and riffs and induce a sense of darkening despair as the world starts to cave in on us. The percussion sticks to its usual time-keeping function while lead guitar blats clear-toned resonant riffs and a grinding bass rhythm provides the harshness that adds to the song's sense of impending fate. The song breaks into a rolling climax which ends on an extended feedback drone, similar to "Blindfold" in its ending.

The title track is a strong crunchy conclusion to the album and the messages it has thrown up along the way: the song expresses total despair at the physical and existential darkness that has engulfed humanity, perhaps forever.

All the way through "Faemin" is a solid and dependable effort where the musicians know exactly what to do and what's expected of them, and deliver precisely to those expectations. Songs are fairly similar in their structure: they build up and up on repeating riffs and constant rhythms to a climax that opens the flood-gates and allows the reined-in tension and anger to rush through but in a controlled way. Songs may end abruptly or sound off on an extended high-pitched feedback drone. The style of music seems to be as much influenced by hardcore elements as sludge doom and death metal; there is real if restrained anger in the vocals and the music tends to be very straightforward and business-like. Rarely does the lead guitar zing off on unexpected solo journeys. Everyone works to a common cause and there is no deviation. For most Process of Guilt fans, this will be enough.

I'd prefer something a little less controlled and with more emotion and a stronger, darker atmosphere in line with the album's theme but that is just my opinion. On the next album perhaps Process of Guilt should take the music up a notch into something more atmospheric, noisy and with a bit of chaos: it would be a natural progression from "Faemin" in style.