Marzannie, Królowej Polski
It’s easy to forget all the great countries which are a home to black metal, while praising the “great old ones” like France or Canada. That this would be quite fatal is really obvious, as one would miss such brilliant releases as the Polish Mglas latest one Hearts Towards None. Clearly Mgla isn’t the only great act of Poland, as you can see on the latest release of Furia, which will be reviewed below.
The latest record of Furia features nearly the same total playing time as their last ones: Nearly 45 minutes are filled with their quite unique style of playing black metal. The expectations were huge after hearing their really genious first two full-length outputs, but sadly they weren’t flawlessly fulfilled. Although the record features nearly everything you loved on their first two albums, it has some “major” points of criticism as well.
The first flaw appears right in the first song, but they cease as the record proceeds. Wyjcie psy starts quite slow and stolid with droning guitars and stomping drums until the beloved bass riff is kicking in. They keep this pace for some time, as they wait for the vocals to kick in as well. After this happened, the whole band starts to play (and sing) furiously, which redifines the shape of the song drastically. Fast guitar riffs are accompanied by blast beats and harsh vocals and the only thing that interrupts them are really short fills and/or some shriek and upsetting guitar melodies. This song, as well as the whole record, features an interplay of passages, that are full of highlights, played in mid- to up-tempo and structures that should create the arc of suspense, which fails sometimes.
Especially the second, untitled, song makes this mistake, as the gleeful anticipation for the upcoming storm reaches its zenith too early, waiting for anything to happen. The thunderstorm finally arrives, after it became a bit annoying to wait for it, but it lacks the varied playing style you expected from Furia, which means it fails to set some highlights. That shouldn’t mean that Marzannie, Królowej Polski is a bad record in general, but it clearly shows that it has some major flaws compared to their previous releases, as they didn’t had such problems before. Furia wouldn’t be Furia if they didn’t manage to offer some contrasting structures as well, featuring creative, catchy and unexpected elements.
The linchpin of the record are clearly the nearly rocking, stomping passages as well as the quite lunatic guitar riffs in songs like Pódź w dół or Skądś do nikąd and the cool bass grooves, that are scattered all across the record waiting for the right moment to strike again. Furia really know how to combine different elements and even use folk influences without tending to be cheesy. Sadly, the record is pending between two excesses: Ingenuity and longwindedness. Although the first extreme is quite good, (for really obvious reasons) it’s the second, that drags the whole record down, as some passages lack variety (or highlights) which results in boring repititions of the same stuff over and over again.
Conclusion:
The third full-length record of Furia shows one thing really clear: Poland is at least as important for well done black metal as France or Canada. The Polish band easily exceeds the work of dozens of other bands, but they still have some issues to work out as well. They didn’t manage to fulfill the high expectations they set with their first two releases, as the tracks lack variety and/or highlights over some passages. Although this record has some flaws, it’s still of a very high quality and wouldn’t be a mispurchase!
Rating: 81/100
Date of release: February, 28th 2012
Tracklist:
| 1. | Wyjcie psy | 06:05 | |
| 2. | Untitled | 06:49 | |
| 3. | Wodzenie | 06:07 | |
| 4. | Skądś do nikąd | 05:17 | |
| 5. | Kosi ta śmierć | 04:59 | |
| 6. | Pódź w dół | 08:46 | |
| 7. | Są to koła | 04:58 | |
| Total Playing Time: | 43:01 | ||
