ALBUM REVIEW: Elegy – Finnr’s Cane
Canada is a country that is renowned for creating some of the best, and indeed most unique, extreme metal acts on the planet. The bleak winters and natural beauty of the place lends itself well to creating music that is in equal parts dark and brilliant. FINNR’S CANE, from Sudbury, Ontario, are no different; having already put out two really good albums through Prophecy Productions since 2010, the band have done a great job of blending together musical styles as diverse as black metal, doom metal, dark ambient and folk music, resulting in music that has its own voice, standing out significantly from many of their contemporaries. Their third record, Elegy, expands on the best aspects of their music, and proves to be their most ambitious and amazing record to date.
Willow starts the album off on an incredibly strong note. It’s an unflinchingly epic and atmospheric offering, blurring the lines between black and doom metal just enough to provide some dense, groove-laden rhythm sections and some minimalist, haunting lead guitar passages. It’s a very bleak, sorrowful song with an underlying ferocity and power that really complement each other well. There’s also plenty of expansive keyboard pieces and acoustic guitars that take the already huge sound and make it sound absolutely monolithic. The vocals, although sparsely used, work very well, providing a far more subtle approach that contrast perfectly with the heavier and darker aspects of this song.
The second, titular track, leans much more towards the black metal influences in FINNR’S CANE‘s sound, with eerie, murky guitar hooks and steady, almost primal drums giving this a cold and sepulchral sound. The brilliant chanting vocals make this song sound even more grandiose, and the airy melodies and softer guitar sections that pepper this track only serve to emphasise just how grim the rest of the song truly is. Strange Sun is a far more energetic track than the two that have preceded it, with a much faster pace, a more melody orientated sound and noticeably harsher vocals than what we’ve heard up until this point. The music is performed in a more traditional black metal vein, with some moments brief moments breaking up the visceral and acerbic feel of the track. There’s a slight post rock flavour to it as well, which give this song some vast and impressive moments. It’s a really good track that departs from the formula, adding some variety to the bands sound and showing the range of their musical approach.
Empty City makes great use of folk instrumentation, with the song with the music mainly centred around the cello and some nice melodies courtesy of a flute. Every other aspects of the music, from the guitars to the bass and drums, is far more relaxed and restrained, and allows the ambience of the folkier parts come to the fore and carry the track. Towards the track’s closing moments, it suddenly bursts into life, with a far meatier and robust sound taking over and taking the song to its closing moments. These latter moments are firmly rooted in blackened doom, with acidic howls and grating tones complementing the beauty of the softer and more sublime elements really well. It’s an excellent track in its own right, but it also acts as a great interlude between the album’s first and second halves.
Earthsong proves to be a much more palpable and grandiose effort from FINNR’S CANE, with gargantuan rhythmic motifs and tight lead guitar licks. This is a gorgeous piece of atmospheric metal, with some dark and harsh black metal tropes liberally peppered in. Despite its thick and beastly tones, it still maintains a really epic, uplifting sound that helps provide plenty of emotional weight and gravitas to this song that makes it instantly memorable and great to listen to. Lacuna is easily one of the more experimental efforts on the album, coupling bleak, jarring chords with expert drumming and some of the most intense vocals on the whole record, resulting in what is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most aggressive, primal and visceral track on the whole album from FINNR’S CANE. With some amazing guitar playing cutting through the mix and standing prominently within the mix, there’s plenty of great musicianship on offer, as well as a few well placed acoustic guitar and piano passages, it stands as one of the album’s stand out tracks. Moreover, the motif that carries this song to its end is strongly reminiscent of CELTIC FROST‘s Innocence and Wrath, adding plenty of bombast to a track that has been quite bombastic throughout.
Final track, A Sky of Violet and Pearl, is a massive, monolithic track that encompasses a lot of musical territory. Starting out as a much slower, hazier effort with a stoner metal feel to it, it’s an incredibly hypnotic piece of music right off the bat, and quickly settles into a steady, funeral dirge of a pace. The contrast between the fuzzy guitar tone and the vicious and bitter shrieks of the vocals works really well, and when chanting gets incorporated into the mix, it takes on a noticeably more epic and powerful vibe. There’s a distinctive shift in the style towards the end, with a solitary piano section, coupled with a few cello pieces, which carries the album to its end on a really sorrowful note. It’s a great track that has a minimalist approach to the music and a great ambience that makes it great to listen to from start to finish.
Elegy is an incredibly solid and impressive record from start to finish. It shows that FINNR’S CANE are at their creative peak, making full use of a variety of influences and coming up with some music that is not only completely engrossing and great to listen to, but also eclectic and different, providing the band with their own distinctive sound and style. It’s hard to fault any of the music on here, and each song would have been a stand out track on the album of most other bands. This is a great successor to A Portrait Painted By The Sun, and sets a new benchmark for the band in terms of quality and musicianship. Hopefully whatever they do in the future will be able to match the grandiosity and intensity of what they have done here.
Rating: 8/10
Elegy is out now via Prophecy Productions.
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