Metal Underground.com

Moving away from the ambient and experimental nature of the preceding EP “Halny,” Polish act Furia has backtracked towards a more straightforward black metal style in the new full-length album “Marzannie, Królowej Polski.” Taking somewhat of a “best of both worlds” approach, this latest addition to the Furia discography has the wrathful guitar playing and discordant sounds necessary to appeal to black metal fanatics, while still experimenting just enough to nominally retain the “avant-garde” tag.

It’s easy to tell by sound alone that Furia is a European band, with the non-traditional song structures, throwbacks to the early roots of black metal, and the cacophonous explosions of sound. All seven tracks blend together the familiar with the unknown, having two different styles that weave in and out of each other. There are stretches of fairly minimalist sound, using repeating chords and low chanted vocals to draw in the audience. These are almost like punctuation marks, however, simply designating the point before or after a run of scathing black metal, complete with blast beats and screams.

It’s clear by the end of the opening track that the focus has definitely shifted from previous efforts. While the last EP was one gigantic 20 minute track of flowing madness, these songs are very distinct from one another. While there are still some of the psychedelic sounds reminiscent of Nachtmystium, and a bit of the low key atmosphere that brings to mind Solstafir, these are now backing ideas propping up the darker and more extreme metal segments. These tinges of the unexpected keep the album flowing well, such as the deep, bellowing clean vocals on the sixth track or the bizarrely echoed growls on “Wodzenie” that blend into a rhythmic mix of heavy and melodic guitar work.

While the album’s newer direction has all the benefits of black metal, it also has some of the drawbacks. There is a bass player following along with the music, but unfortunately the bass is buried deep beneath everything else and comes off as a muffled, reverb-style rumbling instead of a separate instrument playing actual notes. Although not as insanely experimental or smooth flowing as earlier work, “Marzannie, Królowej Polski” is still a completely solid album offering both ambient journeys of sound and black metal mayhem.