Beats and yelling: Feralia

Ultima Requies
Out 26^th June on ATMF

The third album from this Italian outfit relives the streaming lamentations of the Blazebirth Hall scene, but populates this infamously barren Russian style with stark features by which to navigate. Most obviously via rhythmic variation and clearly marked out phrasing, over and above the addition of rich keyboard decoration which often pivots to organ, lending the music a grandiose gothic flair alongside the fragility of acoustic guitars. In one sense then, Feralia seem to be tempering the flamboyance of symphonic black metal with the minimal wing of the genre. The austerity of sparse black metal receives an emotional and thematic upgrade, whilst the genre’s more eccentric tendencies are dulled somewhat, any rampant theatrical impulses sobered up into a more demure beast. The result is a finely balanced work of stylistic variety and conceptual unity.

The production has a suppressed, murky quality to it. Utterly dominated by the guitars, the richly distorted tone floods into every crevice of the mix. The dull thud of the drumkit, for all the subtle creativity of the performance, is left to shadow the momentum of the flowing riffs as they bore their way through each piece. This leaves other instrumentation – be it clean guitars, keyboards, vocals which frequently flip into clean chants – to simply ride the waves of the storm, as much a hostage to the momentum and direction as the listener. But from this emerges a mix that feels open, vast, yet also accommodating of periodic moments of intimacy, the physicality of proximity alongside an awe inducing scale.

The compositions have a clear teleology, what can at first look like a simple switch between two ideas gradually expands its remit into a tightly developed narrative before a final sequence gathers all the parts together into a satisfactory – if sometimes a little obvious – conclusion. Populating these naturalistic foundations is the unmistakable human touch of folk, expressed not only through acoustic guitar lines and the odd melodic touch, but also in the clean vocals that serve almost as antagonist to the distorted voicing. The picture is further enriched by guitar leads that wouldn’t be out of place on Bathory circa ‘Hammerheart’, but seem quite at home in this much sparser setting.

Ultimately, this is a workhorse of an album, refreshing for its ability to fulfil multiple functions at once. As a work of sparse atmospherics it excels due to the unique aura that swells from the mix. As a tightly and intentionally composed piece of metal music it succeeds in setting out a clear statement and taking the listener on the journey. And it is perhaps one of the best examples of solid arrangement from recent memory, not afraid to extend out into multiple directions at once whilst ensuring that each element acquired along the way is put in service of the whole. Feralia’s influences, whilst clearly discernible across each track, are thoroughly digested into a maturely articulated identity, furnishing the listener with an idiosyncratic sound world that gives us every reason to continue exploring.