Faal - The Clouds Are Burning - review
Faal - The Clouds Are Burning - review
Tracklist
01. My Body Glows Red02. The Insistance's Wish
03. Tempest
04. The Clouds Are Burning
A review by
BitterCOld April 27, 2012
When it's Faal's epic four track full-length The Clouds Are Burning.
Many moons ago, my Doom Pusher, Marcel, sent me a package with a bunch of t-shirts, promo materials, and disks. Faal's Abhorrence - Salvation was probably my favorite of the goodies inside.
A couple years later, they have finally followed up the EP with the monstrous album, The Clouds Are Burning. While early in the year, I imagine this will still be near the top of the ridiculous musical goodie bag that is 2012.
Faal play a blackened form of doom metal - combining the standard low end growls with counterpoint rasps to tweak the mood. Other times sees the slow moving riffs paired against thundering rapid fire drums. Doom is an expansive, stylistically varying genre, and Faal have no problem dooming outside the box and shifting from the thundering glacial creep of most extreme doom acts and into the midpace swagger-driven riffs of traditional doom acts, such as in the opening riff of "Tempest". Hell, they even push the boundaries to, gasp, fast-paced black metal pounding midway through "The Insistance's Wish".
Further factor in some leads, keyboard backing and hellish psychedelia a la Esoteric and you are in for one hell of a ride. (Side note - Esoteric's Greg Chandler was involved in the mixing and mastering of this monstrosity.)
Their willingness to explore beyond formulas A and B (A - 70 minutes, 3 songs, 0.15bpm; B - 70 minutes, 3 songs, shifting to ambient passages then back to crushing doom, all at 0.15bpm), yet with that overwhelming vibe of crushing despair present at all times, makes this a dynamic listen. It does a masterful job of sucking the listener in and dragging them under, with the shifts in approach and speed simply being different currents of the water in which you drown.
So, at least for today, epic Faal is epic win.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written on 27.04.2012 by
Written on 27.04.2012 by
BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. Comments page 2 / 2
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 Posts: 18617 |
Posts: 18617 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 02.05.2012 at 20:30 Did one of you smack the face of the other who said that for such a lame pun? 
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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Posts: 40071 Written by X-Ray Rod on 02.05.2012 at 20:48 nah. Pim had to check the band out because it would be a possible opener for Dutch Doom Days that year. Well, their first gig impressed us both and he booked them to open the Saturday of Dutch Doom Days 2008 (see report on it by Lucas, Collin and me)
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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Posts: 677  |
Posts: 677
Considering my recent doom obsession, this is one I would do well to check out. Any other notable doom releases this year, BitterCOld?
---- My lo-fi synth project: http://luciddreamer.bandcamp.com
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Posts: 15360 Written by strade on 11.05.2012 at 02:13 Profetus - funeral doom. Tort and Lurk are sludge/doom that are awesome. Doc Godin reviewed those. he preferred Lurk, I prefer Tort. Process Of Guilt comes out next month, and is a mix of doom and Neurosis/Cult of Luna stay post... Solitude sent me a bunch of stuff, apparently, that should arrive soon so i am likely to have more to report. Most of the doom i've listened to this year was put out by them late last year.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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Posts: 21306 Written by strade on 11.05.2012 at 02:13 In addition to the OBC's suggestions, I'd also go with Monolithe (reviewed by Joe), Ea (reviewed by Bitter), Anhedonist (no profile here but awesome evil-sounding death doom), and Inverloch (members of diSEMBOWELMENT... so... old school plodding crunchy death doom).
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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Posts: 677 Written by Troy Killjoy on 11.05.2012 at 02:49 Oh yeah, I already bought that Anhedonist album from Dark Descent due to glowing reviews. Haven't listened to it enough, but my first impression was definitely positive. Inverloch and Process of Guilt will probably be my net stops after that. Thanks the for suggestions, guys.
---- My lo-fi synth project: http://luciddreamer.bandcamp.com
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| Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071
Album release gig tonight in 013, Tilburg together with monsters Ophis and Ataraxie. Hell, psyched for it. Nice oozing into the weekend with Dordrecht Doom Day tomorrow which features Heavy Lord, Akelei, Seal Of Beleth, Ophis, Mythological Cold Towers and headliner Saturnus.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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Posts: 4935  |
Posts: 4935
I wasn't blown away by this album at first. But damn, it's growing on me by the day. Probably my favorite new metal album discovery, together with Pike. It indeed reminds me a lot of Esoteric, and probably Arcana Coelestia even more. They do that post-rockish tremolo picking very stylishly, better than Explosions in the Sky themselves. The middle two tracks are maybe a little weaker, but the opener and especially the closer are just immense.
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 Posts: 1322 |
Posts: 1322
This is excellent. So damn atmospheric, and not as slow as funeral doom (Which is a taste I haven't acquired yet). And the post-rock tremolo picking that IronAngel mentioned is stellar to say the least, especially in "Tempest". The tracks are all equally good, with "The Insistance's Wish" a very little bit behind. Any other bands that play the same style?
---- In that case, man is only air as well.
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