Furze - Reaper Subconscious Guide

Woe J. Reaper has been quite busy over the years. Norway’s Furze can never be accused of being stagnant or “dead,” as the output over the years is pretty damn impressive. His new full-length titled Reaper Subconscious Guide is somewhat different from his usual black metal efforts. While this isn’t necessarily terrible it is indeed oddly interesting; if it’s resonating is still a mystery to me as I am hearing it, but I’m working on it.

The somewhat black style of tracks like “It Leads” is shattered by some strange vocals that sound more like something Mister doctor from Devil Doll might attempt. Once “Immortal Lecture” kicks in the album totally goes haywire for me and I am left to wonder what the hell Reaper is doing or attempting to do. I seriously hear a lot of the avante garde Devil Doll music in here that at times borders on insanity. It can be entertaining for a once-around, but I’m not sure I’d ever pick the disc up for a second listen at this point.

I do enjoy the morose tempo of “Essential Wait” quite a bit because it sounds like something Celtic Frost or even Tryptikon might conjure up in fits of dark poring over ancient texts. However, the whole of the sum does not even come close to matching to majestic power of these bands. The songs tend to go all over the place and trail off into somewhere else. There is very little that’s either interesting or memorable here, which is unfortunate because the guy has some real talent and vision. Maybe I just missed it, but I was a bit bored with the unit as a piece.

Trident Autocrat was a fine CD with some serious black magic scattered about, but as each album emerges I’m left to wonder what piece of the lineage I missed or am misunderstanding. I can understand the wanting to branch out into avenues of a more artsy fashion and advance the musical vision, but when it simply doesn’t seem to make sense is where my confusion sets in too deeply. While there are moments of Norwegian black metal here and there, the entire forty-five-minute setting is both lost and too much of abstract art for art’s sake.

I just don’t get it.         

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*Comments:

November 4, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Release Date: October 26, 2010
Label: Agonia Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Earlier Than the Third
     Might of the Cosmos
2.  It Leads
3.  Immortal Lecture
4.  The Bonedrum
5.  Essential Wait

Total playing time:  43:55