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Rating:
8.7 |
Faal - Abhorrence - Salvation
25 October 2008
01. 00:00
02. In My Final Hour Of Grief
03. The Scent Of Withered Flowers
04. Perpetual Solitude
Faal, 'fail' in English, are a young Dutch band with potential. With only three gigs behind their name they already made a name for themselves in the Dutch doom scene, at least big enough to get invited as opening act for the renowned Dutch Doom Days festival. And it just happened to be that I was there, witnessing the performance, and I was completely blown away by it.
In an attempt to recapture that great experience, I bought their début album "Abhorrence / Salvation", released by the German label Ván Records. It was originally intended to be a demo, which unfortunately becomes apparent in the slightly inferior production, but then again this is no genre for crystal clean productions, so who cares? It still easily has much more atmosphere and quality than many contemporary doom albums.
Faal play a mix of Black and Doom, with some Post-Rock influences in their sound. Opener "00:00" is the shortest song of the quartet, clocking in just over the seven and a half minutes, and it is a dirge of beautifully weaved melodies, dark riffs and spoken weeps and hellishly uttered growls. The three following songs contain the same ingredients, but Faal mixes them into four varying and adventurous songs. The spacey and carefully constructed songs could have been a hurricane with a proper production, but they are downgraded to a mere storm by the muffled production. Still, a storm is too something you should watch out for and at some points during the album the production even adds a little charm.
Blending the vibes of Deinonychus, My Dying Bride with synth and guitar beauty, and throwing that all into a pitch-black, hallow chamber of torture, they just hit the spot. "Abhorrence / Salvation" is a great release of a band of which I'm sure can still do much better. I'm not expert on my own countries' scene, but if I were to hand out the award for the "Most Promising Metal Band In Recent Years", it would without doubt go to Faal. Seriously, if you're a fan of Doom, do not miss out on these guys. Oh, and when they play anywhere near you, do anything it takes to be there.
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Performance:
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9 |
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Songwriting:
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9 |
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Originality:
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8 |
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Production:
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7 |
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Written on 23.02.2009 by
Lucas
If you're interested in extreme, often emotional and underground music, check out my reviews. I retired from reviewing, but I really used to be into that stuff.
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Comments
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Another good review dude, that's far-out man, lol.
This album didn't really grab my attention, but a few songs captured my mind and thoughts. I just need some time to sit down and listen to it all the way through.
The Scent of Withered Flowers was a personal favorite of mine. |
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| Very interested in checking them out. i had heard/read some nice things before, but your extended review has me extremely intrigued. |
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Great review. But I find it funny that although I like this album more than you (we talked about that) I would rate it 8.1 to your 8.7
Ah well, definitely The Netherlands' most promising band imo. |
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 Lucas - 23.02.2009 at 20:41
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Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 23.02.2009 at 19:50
Great review. But I find it funny that although I like this album more than you (we talked about that) I would rate it 8.1 to your 8.7
Ah well, definitely The Netherlands' most promising band imo.
Well, I have chosen to ignore the production for 99% of the time becausse the quality just blasts through it at times. With a proper production, this would've been among my best of '08, so I think we more or less agree. |
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Written by Lucas on 23.02.2009 at 20:41
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 23.02.2009 at 19:50
Great review. But I find it funny that although I like this album more than you (we talked about that) I would rate it 8.1 to your 8.7
Ah well, definitely The Netherlands' most promising band imo.
Well, I have chosen to ignore the production for 99% of the time becausse the quality just blasts through it at times. With a proper production, this would've been among my best of '08, so I think we more or less agree.
Btw I gave Fall the link to this and Geert already read it... and his words were.... "I thought you (Marcel) was the Faal fanboy" hahahaha |
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Lucas - 23.02.2009 at 21:13
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Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 23.02.2009 at 21:08
Btw I gave Fall the link to this and Geert already read it... and his words were.... "I thought you (Marcel) was the Faal fanboy" hahahaha
tell him to shut up and organize some gigs so i can see them again  |
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Written by Lucas on 23.02.2009 at 21:13
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 23.02.2009 at 21:08
Btw I gave Fall the link to this and Geert already read it... and his words were.... "I thought you (Marcel) was the Faal fanboy" hahahaha
tell him to shut up and organize some gigs so i can see them again
Here are some upcoming dates:
I am certainly going to the one in Breda where they will be playing with Akelei.
20 Mar 2009 Electron (/w Akelei) Breda, Noord-Brabant
28 Mar 2009 Night of the Damned Zaandam
25 Apr 2009 TBA (/w Mournful Congregation) TBA
26 Apr 2009 TBA (/w Mournful Congregation) TBA
21 May 2009 Le Klub (/w Jack Frost) Paris |
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| Good album, great music, but the production lets it down... shame. |
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Written by Merchant of Doom on 04.03.2009 at 11:43
Good album, great music, but the production lets it down... shame.
This was all recorded in the bedrooms of the guitar player and drummer and was actually meant to be put out as a demo but then Van Records wanted to release it as the debut. But rest assured that the next album will have a proper budget and production. |
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I received the album (thanks marcel!) in the special supercool blue packaging - really eyecatchting. have had it playing in the background on my iTunes random Doom sampler before, liked it. listened to it a couple times while reading last night and really liked it.
the production didn't bother me at all, really.
if the next release is to have better production and contains equal caliber music, it will be on my highly anticipated list. |
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| Just found these guys by chance. Don't mind it actually. |
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