Faal "The Clouds Are Burning"

"The Clouds Are Burning" is the second album for the Dutch group Faal, it is the second album for this doom metal band after the 2008 release of "Abhorrent-Salvation". According to the band, this impressive new album deals “with subjects such as the human psyche, the state of being tortured, the road to madness and inner conflicts”. The concept isn't new so let's cut the chase and get to what's inside. Four long tracks (the shortest one has about 9 and a half minutes) of well executed funeral doom with a dense atmosphere of sorrow and grief around every corner.

"The Clouds are Burning" is a well executed essay based on gloom, emptiness and despair. Take a listen at the opening track, “My Body Glows Red”, it is a brilliantly somber and gloomy song from the beginning to the end. It begins slowly, preparing us for what we're about to witness.. a journey into an empty world, featuring nothing but desolation and death. And in this journey, there's no triumph at sight in the line of the horizon. It wraps the listener in a way that, although it's a long track, there isn't one single bit of boredom on it. The guttural vocals add that extra weight to the tracks and remind me quite Tomi Koivusaari's vocals from Amorphis' "Tales From The Thousand Lakes". The instrumental parts are simple but beautiful, they fit perfectly for wandering around lost in a desolate world. The growls give it a visceral edge to it, but it does not take long for that somber feeling to creep back in as the songs progresses forward. Beside all of this funeral doom, you can still find some hints of black metal being thrown, as heard on “The Incistance Wish”. Faal’s "The Clouds Are Burning" is the type of album that hooks you from the first minute, it gets inside your head and affects your mood. Fans of the black/doom metal genre, don't sleep on this one. Recommended for fans of Monads, Esoteric. Buy it on vinyl here.

listen | dark clouds in the horizon