Mors Principium Est « The RingMaster Review

Since emerging in 2010, UK outfit Furyborn seem to make a potent statement with every move they make within the British metal scene. From their live debut in 2011, they have earned support and a reputation which has only gathered momentum and is sure to again with the release of their debut album, Dawn Of Leviathan. It is a ferociously imposing and compelling affair that arouses the same senses it trespasses with the band’s increasingly distinct and adventurous style of melodic death metal.

That live side of the Poole hailing quintet has seen them become one of the most potent forces across the South of England, win the regional Metal 2 The Masses competition and play Bloodstock Open Air for only their seventh live outing. Since then they have shared stages with the likes of Napalm Death, Threat Signal, Mors Principium Est, Sylosis, The Agonist, Malefice, The Defiled, Evile, (Hed) P.E. and Ted Maul as well as release their first acclaimed EP, The Reaping Of Our Days released in 2012 through Bored Stiff Records. Fair to say the band has been nagging at national and broader attention since day one, increasingly growing both which the highly anticipated Dawn Of Leviathan can only escalate.

The album quickly shows a new strength in intensity, craft, and imagination within Furyborn; a growth in all aspects infused into a maturity which is maybe unexpected within a first full-length, even from a band in its seventh year. Dawn of Leviathan opens with the atmospheric trespass of Second Sun, a brief harass of raw sonic dissonance which leads into the album’s title track where instantly a barrage of intrusive beats from drummer Tim Coulson and ravenous riffs from rhythm guitarist Rob Walker devour ears. Just as forceful are the raw throated roars of vocalist Jut Tabor who quickly seizes attention with his grudging tones, their causticity leading to a great flame of clean endeavour; the frontman, as the sounds around him showing a new dexterity and range which only impresses. It takes little time for band and song to reveal a new lofty plateau to that of the first EP, the melodic suggestiveness of lead guitarist Nick Richardson alone a striking new adventure equipped with the broader imagination and uniqueness that flows through the veins of the track.

The Reckoning follows with the same striking creative tenacity and character, the track a tirade of biting rhythms and corrosive riffs leading the listener into a web of melodic and cleanly delivered temptation. Within the burly, ravenous tempest of bitter sonic and vocal inhospitality, it makes for a compelling mix which only intensifies its lures as the song evolves and broadens its inventive landscape before Exult in Extinction uncages its own rabid assault again led by the uncompromising swings of Coulson. Stalking the senses, the bass of Timmy Hodgson is predatory if sometimes overwhelmed by the storm of riffs and beats while again Richardson veins the cauldron of sound with tendrils of skilful melodic lava. Contrasts flare and meet within the encounter, each colluding with and countering the other in a twisting tempest matched by vocal resourcefulness across the band.

The industrial opening of A Fault in Our Design brings a bold hint of Fear Factory like hues before the track turns to stalking and intimidating the senses. There is a swing to its core presence with breeds the infectiousness soon seeping into every element, the result a blistering yet controlled incitement as predatory as it is melodically tenacious while Life Begins uncages its own mercurial invasion of sound and emotion. Though swiftly persuasive and increasingly compelling, the song does not quite reach the inventive and gripping heights of its predecessors for these ears though individual flair is as open as the track’s animosity and melodic assurance.

The raw rabidity of I Am Heresy has the imagination and appetite magnetically hooked again straight after with its ravenous and invitingly inhospitable assault of the senses while Deep Rising provides an enthralling lure of Tabor’s striking clean side courted by a laid back but fully suggestive climate of electronically led sound. With the irresistible carnivorous tone of Hodgson’s bass to the fore, the track is superb, another stirring magnet within the release adding further aspects to the bold adventure and evolving imagination of Furyborn.

The album concludes with firstly the varied metal symphony of Wraith, an array of flavours swarming with each other before a writhing death metal causticity bursts from within their midst, and finally with the symphonically laced As We Burn. The closer revels in all the new attributes of the band’s sound and writing, its proposal as invasively seductive as it is rancorous and transfixing. Again Fear Factory-esque hues entice as more Sepultura/Gojira like elements challenge, each woven into the individual character of Furyborn’s own sound. One of its major highlights, the song ensures that Dawn of Leviathan ends on a fascinating high.

Throughout, the album tightly holds attention and fiercely pleases, increasingly so with every subsequent listen. The fact that you still feel we are listening in on one step in a journey still to unfold only adds to the impressive nature of a release which is as much about potential as it is ear exciting craft and adventure.

Dawn of Leviathan is out now through most online stores and @ http://furyborn.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/furyborn/

Pete RingMaster 11/07/2017

Ferium1.lo

Parading a roaring muscular sound built from numerous metallic essences around a death metal spine, Israeli metallers Ferium more than lives up to the brewing buzz around them with debut album Reflections. Twelve slabs of creative brutality and imaginatively skilled endeavour, the release is a formidable and striking big step into the wider metal world, one which hits hard and impressively initially but only truly reveals its depths and strengths and those of the band across numerous exploits with its intrusive presence. The quintet delves into the rich wells of groove, technical, general extreme metal and more to enhance their core viciousness and persuasion, a fusion as proven by their first full-length which is something not exactly unique but definitely seizing attention and a hungry appetite as it starts setting its own path now and for the future.

Ferium was formed in 2006 taking initial inspirations of Pantera and Lamb Of God into their intent though that expanded over the years with influences from the likes of Textures, Gojira, and Death adding to the fuel driving their invention. Equally growing up in Haifa and the situation in their country has added depth to the lyrical and musical side of their emergence. The band does not directly or openly explore any aspect of the conflict and climate they grew within and felt personally but it is scenery which has brought a raw and uncompromising breath to their sound and presence. Their first release, The New Law EP in 2009 took the band into a strong spotlight at home and further afield, helping to lead Ferium to appearances at big home events such as Summer Carnage and Hallejujahas well as those abroad like Wacken 2009. Last year saw a more intensive time for the band, tours supporting The Agonist, Threat Signal, Mors Principium Est, and Dawn Heist around Europe and the UK following a show opening for Gojira in Israel. The end of 2013 was marked by the band signing a deal with Transcend Music and the worldwide distribution for the 2012 recorded Reflections, a release you sense could open up a highly receptive hunger for their presence.

Opening track By The Book lays an initial abrasive guitar coaxing upon the ears, a sonic wind brewing alongside it before being punctured Reflections Cover by the heavy probing rhythms of drummer Ron Amar. It is an intriguing start, one offering various options of where the song and album might go without revealing anything too soon. It is not long though before the drums increase their pressure, the bass of Yoni Biton closes in with dark intensive shadows, and the guitars of Elram Boxer and Guy Goldenberg sculpt a weave of tight grooves and searing riffs to transfix thoughts and emotions. With the harsh yet welcoming vocal abrasion of Tiran Ezra unleashing the first narrative, the track wakes up eager attention early, leading it into a magnetic fascination which in turn ignites the imagination. The thrilling song does not really explode at any point but is a constant blaze of invention and technical prowess which is stretched to more dramatic adventures across the album, in fact right away with DownHill From Nothing.

The second song entwines the ears in an infection fuelled groove from its first breath, the guitars seducing with full potency as bass and drums badger the senses into another swift submission. Again the vocals graze and roar with an unbridled causticity but only to accentuate the virulent lure of the song. The bass of Biton prowls and growls with understated but open ingenuity throughout the tempestuous offering yet it is the work of Boxer and Goldenberg which more often than not steals the focus upon the song, the melodies and emotive designs from their strings richly colouring song and imagination. Like the first it has an inescapable contagion to its enterprise and especially its grooved bait, and like its successor draws a greedy appetite for its invention.

Both The Very Existence and Mirror exploit an already eager attention with their individual persuasions, the first creating a weave of djent seeded technical manipulation with an almost thrash spawned antagonistic fury of death metal with metalcore bred essences. It is heavier and more intense than its predecessors without dismissing any of the melodically nurtured sonic exploration which marked their success. With a strong evocative ambience also washing the canvas of the song it is a thought provoking and longer to convince encounter, as is its successor though both refuse to relinquish the grip already seized by the release. The second of these two squall over and ravage the senses with again a stronger rabidity; vocally and rhythmically the track an abusive suasion whilst sonically it sears air and flesh, the combination another offering to feed the hunger inside.

The entrance of Side Effects is exceptional, an intimidating but irresistible gentle tempting from the guitars and the perfect lure into the spiteful aggression to follow. Its gait is almost stalking the ears whilst the outstanding bass hook and acidic guitar toxicity steals the passions below an unreserved rhythmic provocation. Its masterful adventure is replaced by the instrumental The Black Eyes, a piece ripe with classical keys elegance and scuzz surfaced energy. It is music which builds its size and intensity across its skilful narrative, inviting the imagination to cast its own tale though it is less successful with the passions especially with the bestial Lust Fool bursting in right away. It is a bear of a song, muscles holding sway within the black density and throat of the onslaught whilst the guitars lash and rhythms pummel the senses around the ever malicious vocals. It is a drama fuelled, adrenaline driven monstrosity of an encounter and thoroughly scintillating.

After the similarly predacious Caustic Value, an intrusion which easily feeds wants without lighting fires, the album takes another upturn with the brilliant Change Of Winds soon matched by Business On Demand. The first of the two romps with and dancing over ears and senses with grooves and jagged riffery from its first second, the track gnawing, jarring, and disorientating senses magnificently whilst Ezra riles syllables and tones for an equally malevolently textured assault, his variety in delivery a constant pleasure. The track twists and lurches wonderfully, all the time depleting energy and scything slices from the synapses until an exhausted pleasure lies in its wake, one soon re-energised by its successor. An open and familiar groove leads the way under the persistent cosh of rhythms and barracking riffs, the temptation recruiting full allegiance for the subsequent savagery vocally and musically which envelops the still dominant groove cast toxins. Both tracks provide the pinnacle of the album and the band’s songwriting in brutality and epidemic seduction.

The album is concluded by Blood and its title track, the pair insatiable trespasses bringing an outstanding release to a mighty end, the first of the two an insidiously nasty demonic capture of ears and beyond whilst the last song simply churns up and suffocates emotions with mouthwatering invention and crippling intensity respectively. Wrapped in excellent artwork from Eliran Kantor (Hatebreed, Sodom, Atheist), Reflections is extreme metal of the highest order and shows Ferium as having the potential of forging truly major horizons ahead whilst giving a rather breath-taking treat for the now.

http://www.feriumband.com/

9/10

RingMaster 07/04/2014

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