FURIA „Un Lac De Larmes Et De Sang”

Music: Melodic Death/Power Metal
Duration: 45:00 minutes (13 songs)

After a short intro that sounds like a typical French song festival song, Furia immediately starts to try to catch up with the impression that was generated by its name. And I must say they really succeed in that, (but I'll try to keep my personal opinion on this band out of the review).

Their songwriting style is a little in the vein of Cradle Of Filth: chaotic song structures with lots of acceleration, solos and catchy melodies, with intermissive synth/acoustic parts here and there. The music can be defined as the opposite of depressing: Furia use semi-heavy and powerful riffs that are overlaid with light, catchy coatings. This is articulated by the chaos it's holding. It isn't hard to hear that the Children Of Bodom have had a major impact on the band too (as well as a sniff of Cradle Of Filth). I especially find many similarities between this record and CoB's “Hatebreeder” and “Follow The Reaper”, also if the quality is taken a look at! Un Lac De Larmes Et De Sang profits form the same astonishing ten-brilliant-melodies-a-minute songwriting as the aforementioned albums did.

It's a little hard to define the genre, Un Lac De Larmes Et De Sang certainly has it's heavy metal moments, but the overall sounds like power metal, only in an extreme way. A melodic death metal approach with blackened vocals drives some of the aggression and anger I admire, into the veins of their style. Keyboards are very in place and definitely not overused. The drums sound like the typical drum-style of Kalmah and CoB: fast and chaotic. Although I really like this style, I think the influence of these bands grows out of proportions. I don't want to awake the impression that the band is a rip-off of Children Of Bodom though, because they still have a unique sound and manage to stand on their own feet. And by the way, have you heard “Lil' Blood Ridin' Hood” by CoB? One part of the song (2:34) is an exact copy of an element of Dissection's “Night's Blood” (1:30)!

Although black screeches are used a lot, Furia utilizes a very varied vocal attack, for we also can enjoy some clean female and male singing and death growls à la Amon Amarth on “Once Sent From The Golden Hall”, or occasionally even deeper growls in the vein of bands like Nile. What surprises me is the harmoniousness of the vocal lines in their environment of chaotic guitar and drum onslaughts. Variety can also get boring, but the band perfectly solved this by throwing in some samples that do their job in surprising you and drawing you into your speakers.

It's a nice thing to see that this magnificent band is French and even greater that the lyrics are in French. My knowledge of that language does not reach a lot further than the title of the album (which means something like: a lake of tears and blood), but the familiarity yet uncommonness of the texts really exerted a pull on me. Even though the French metal scene is not very well known of it's delicious fruit, this record is as a mature cherry without any worms, French metal at its best! (I think I'll put Furia in my list of favourite bands)

note: 8.5/10

Tracklist

01 Ferme Les Yeux
02 Un Lac De Larmes Et De Sang
03 Elmira, L'Image D'Un Destin
04 Les Révélations D'Un Temps Passé
05 Auto-Psy D'Un Damné
06 Mécanique De L'Infamie
07 Le Jugement D'Une Conscience
08 Les Deux Mondes
09 Mental En Perdition
10 Mémoires D'Outre-Tombe
11 Sailen
12 L'Oratoire De La Folie
13 La Mort De L'Ame