The band everyone was talking about in Perth in 2004 and 2005, The Furor left a mile wide path of destruction through the city. On the strength of the 2004 release "Invert Absolute" and an epic stageshow, The Furor single-handedly revitalised the stagnant black metal scene and made corpsepaint and ridiculous "over the top-ness" more than just acceptible, it became.... cool? God Forbid!
Infusing extreme metal genres with the finese of a lens crafter and the gentle precision of a wrecking ball, The Furor crafted a very, very nasty album. Using elements of the fastest speed metal, the tone of extreme black bands, the attitude of war metal and the dark elements of death, Kill Machine and Warlock created a guitar and bass style with influences all over the extreme metal map and yet different to all of them. Blackened in tone but somehow still clear enough to make out every ugly note, they created fast and venomous structures with melody and violence intertwined in an orchestral pagan dance of exhillarating despair, a soaring monument to all that is evil in the world. Together they were a Cape Twirling, grimacing, demonic pair of frontman, and then to put the icing on the bloody cake there was Disaster.
Disaster the man, not the condition, although anyone standing close to him while onstage may debate that. The man we know locally as Louis was - and is - a pocket-sized freak of nature who, onstage with Furor in his blood, spikes and corpsepainted inglory looked like 8 feet of demented horror. Now frequently touring and world-reknown as a session drummer of unnatural skill, Disaster led the charge for The Furor as both Drummer and lead Vocallist with his preternatural skills on display for all at every show, and on "Invert Absolute" he throws down a challenge to the best in the world. No newcomer to the extreme Metal scene, Disaster stepped into the darkness and brought forth his finest moments to date on this album, drums so blatantly hateful and bleak that 6 years later he is still constantly voted in the top drummers in the city on the strength of this album alone.
Together, The Furor created an album like no other, 45 minutes of mental torment with a sound like Brutal Truth combined with Impaled Nazarene. Viciously fast and sinister sounding, "Invert Absolute" is the soundtrack playing in the elevator to Hell, a grand symphony dedicated to the degradation of mankind. It hisses with spite and bombardes you with one evil-sounding progression after another, but "Invert Absolute" isn't just a blistering attack without relent, the furor are all the more impressive for those moments where they step back a bit and let the songs breathe. As one example, in "Surpassing the Steel Array" they strip the ferocity down a notch at times and a powerful groove comes to the fore, and the song just explodes into headbanging chaos. The contrasts created by these moments of clarity cause the violence of the faster passages to be all the more menacing, and the blend of melody and corrosiveness in the 9 minute long masterpiece "Humanity Fooled" is unique to say the least.
And even then, the twists in the tale don't end. In "Polar Fate" strange eerie vocals and keys float through the mix like wandering spirits, and just when you think that "Invert Absolute" has no more suprises to grant your bewildered head, "Invisible Paths" has Disaster singing clean melodies and even harmonies in conjuction with a lead break that is sweeter than it seems possible for an outfit this grim.
Sadly, The Furor have gone underground these days, perhaps gone forever, and we have only their recordings now to scare our parents with. A generation is sliding past, unknowing and uncaring that giants stood on the same stages that they do now. We weep for them.
Review by Jez.
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