Fjoergyn - Sade et Masoch

June 24, 2008

Reviewer: Jesse

Fjoergyn pretty much came out of nowhere in ’05 and released what I thought was an utterly magnificent orchestral opus.  A grand, sweeping symphony combined with epic black metal made for a truly rewarding experience of an album.

Well in ’07, they brought Sade et Masoch to us as their sophomore effort with the daunting task of trying to live up to its predecessor and as is typical, it’s falls short of achieving that goal.  Now, how short is a matter of opinion, but mine is in the camp of “very” short.  Don’t get me wrong, the last thing I would want is an album that clones the debut, but maximizing their abilities shouldn’t be too much to ask for and that seems to be the glaring difference between both albums.

Sade et Masoch is a very simplified foray into the realm of epic, orchestral black metal.  Much of the elements that made Ernte Im Herbst so incredible are rather reserved and held back on this album.  The piano has become the choice instrument and the full orchestration has been toned down almost to point of exclusion.  It’s there, but the lack of emphasis is clear.  Not until the fifth song, “Masoch,” do those elements actually attempt to dominate the song.  Not that I want Fjoergyn to turn into Dimmu Borgir, but there was something so beautiful about their debut that I find missing on Sade et Masoch.

Once that moderate disappointment settled, I started to warm up to the album once I convinced myself to take it at face value and forget about the debut album.  It has hooks and melodies all over the place and even gets somewhat avante garde with many progressive spurts sprinkled throughout.  The 70s classic rock influences are clearly evident.

I think Fjoergyn was conscious to the fact that they could become easily pigeon-holed into a certain sequestered genre of extreme metal and wanted to begin the process of moving on, which is perfectly fine by me, but for the time being, Sade et Masoch is hopefully just a rough draft of their aspirations.  They absolutely have the talent and the musicianship that most bands do not, and fair or not, I’m going to hold them to higher level of expectation.  I want this band to wow me and I know they can do it.

Release Date: June 29th, 2007
Label: Reartone Records/Soulfood

TRACK LISTING

1.  Prolog
2.  Das Leid Des Einhorn
3.  Die Hierarchie Der Engel
4.  Ach Sprich Doch...
5.  Masoch
6.  Katharsis
7.  Ich Sah Den Himmel Weinen
8.  Narziss(t)
9.  Sade

Total playing time: 52:46

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