Artist: Furnace
Album: Dark Vistas
Label: Soul Seller Records
Release Date: 09/10/2020
Country: Sweden
Here’s a band that caught me off guard. Until last week I had no idea that Furnace existed, but after learning of them and their upcoming release and listening to it in full, I feel compelled to share them with all of you. Dark Vistas will be released on October 9th on Soul Seller Records, in partnership with Clawhammer PR.
Furnace are a a three peice hailing from Sweden and playing a blend of death, gothic and heavy metal, making for a highly melodic listening experience with plenty of atmosphere. This is the band’s second full length release, following their album Black Stone Church which dropped back in June, so as you can see its been a busy year for these guys.
The band is made up of Peter Svensson on bass and backing vocals (also in Assassin’s Blade, Atraptor, Void Moon and many other bands), Lars Demoké on drums and finally Rogga Johansson on guitars and lead vocals who has been involved in more projects and bands than I have time to list, but some of the most notable include Maasacre, Paganizer, Putrevore, Ribspreader, Deranged and the Grotesquery, among countless others.
The album is defeinitly on the slower to mid tempo side, speed and aggression is not what this band is about. The guitars are melodic in nature and present a cleaner tone than the usual filthy death metal we tend to cover. The gothic elements are definitely present in the mix and play a large role in the overall sound of the band. The closest thing I can think of that comes close is probably Germany’s Crematory in their early career (but with less gothic elements) so if you’re a fan of them then you’ll probably enjoy this. When I say that the the guitar tone is clean it doesnt mean that the music isn’t menacing, because the band still manages to create a dark and menacing tone desbite beingso relient on melody. They also employ a lot of slower, more atmosphere driven segments, often accompanying this with rawer vocals and personally these are my favourite parts of the album.
The vocals on the release are at times deeply gutteral, but at other times are more of a raw, less gutteral style, overall though they’re 100% understandable. They are a perfect for the music presented on the album and the sheer power behind them makes them a key driving force. I wouldn’t say that they overpower the guitars, because the guitar work is solid on this release, its almost an even match between the guitar and vocals for the album lead.
Drum work we get a really solid performance. However, the vocals and guitar definitely drive the rhythm of both the drum and bass work on this paticualr release. This isn’t a criticism of either the drum or bass in any way, they’re still crucial to the overall sound of the album, but they definitely aren’t leading the tracks as far as rhythm goes.
As far as favourite tracks go, there are a few standouts on the album, such as track 2 The Other Ones, for the mixed tempos employed on the track. There’s the faster heavier parts, but they also break down into a moody, more atmospheric part in the later half of the track that really stuck with me.
Track 4 Yog-Sothoth (The Key and the Gateway) is a solid death metal track, its got some great guitar work and has some of the most menacing segments on the album. Parts of the track are pretty heavy and the vocals and guitar work in tandem to create an awesome evil overtone.
Track 9 Eve of Triumph stands out for having plenty of atmosphere and an interesting dark, brooding segment half way through the track, along with some really fantastic vocals to accompany this section.
While those are my top three tracks on the album I also have to give special mention to track 1, Suburban Nightmare and track 6, Trapped. Having said that, overall the whole album is solid and worth a listen. If you’re a melodic death metal fan then you’ll probably enjoy this release. So take some time out of your day and give it a spin.
Listen to the tracks that have already been released and get your pre-orders in below:
Bandcamp:
Spotify:
