Fear Falls Burning – Frenzy of the Absolute

With Frenzy of the Absolute there’s a ritualistic grandeur inherent in the music that is totally at odds with that live experience.

With Frenzy of the Absolute there’s a ritualistic grandeur inherent in the music that is totally at odds with that live experience.

 

Fear Falls Burning – Frenzy of the Absolute

http://www.conspiracyrecords.com/ http://www.konkurrent.nl/

 

For those unaware of Fear Falls Burning, a few words of introduction. FFB, known elsewhere as VidnaObmana is essentially a one-man operation from Belgium. Or one man and his effects pedals, to be more precise. The new album (this has been a long solo career) sees collaboration with drummers Tim Bertilsson (Switchblade), Dave Vanderplas (Rubbish Heap, Ontayso) and Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna) Johannes Persson (Cult of Luna), adds a few licks of guitar. All these extra hands allow the rich multi-sequenced drones to inhabit a wider sonic space.

 

Seeing FFB live last year, we were struck how mesmeric and cloistered the sound was, something that might not come across on a record. With Frenzy of the Absolute there’s a ritualistic grandeur inherent in the music that is totally at odds with that live experience. The title track has the feel of a Viking boat burning, the drums acting as an initial encouragement and then adopting a more interpretive role against the huge, multi-textural wall of sound that is slowly created. He Contemplates the Sign is more sedentary, but somehow much more menacing, the odd guitar rumble penetrating a thin, ice cold web of sound. We Took the Deafening Murmer Down is stripped back, with an almost Black Dance vibe to it (Velvet Phasing I thought) at the beginning. Things build up to a relatively sluggish climax with the help of some doomy thumps

 

There is a data track of more subliminal drones which give a nice counterpoint to the “bombast” of the main album tracks. Tremendous meditative music.