ALBUM REVIEW: Monad – Farer

FARER are a band with a very clear mission statement. They have set out to create the most atmospherically bleak, sonically punishing metal possible with their caustic blend of booming drums and a dual bass guitar attack that threatens to obliterate ear drums and test the strength of your stomach all in one. In contrast to the previous statement though, their latest offering Monad is an album that is as textured and intricate as it is bludgeoningly heavy, proving that not all forms of heaviness are related to the instrumental components, but can also come down to their emotional content. With the band hailing this release as ‘a testament to suffering’, it goes without saying that they intend to take the listener on a journey to the very depths of sanity with every moment.

As a piece of art, Monad is not for the faint of heart. The four tracks that make up the album each clock in at over ten minutes, with a total album run time of around 52 minutes, and there is very little reprieve from the emotional chokehold that the songs hold you in throughout.

The first track Phanes opens with a jarring, heavily distorted bass introduction that scythes its way into your ear canal and acts as the grim foundation for the echoed drums and pained screams that make up the rest of this textured dirge. The reverb on the vocals is an interesting touch, making it seem as though the vocalist is trapped somewhere in the distance. As a result, this adds to the haunting atmosphere that the band are trying to capture. The rawness in the mix makes everything feel unhinged, like you are listening to someone’s descent into madness. This is only exaggerated further by the breaks in the song where the looped samples ebb and flow over the top of the distortion. Everything is unnerving, but as a modern audience we have a certain addiction to the macabre and the grim which is just as well because this is as musically and atmospherically suffocating as you could imagine.

Asulon begins with a pulsing, deep tone and some echoed notes that ring out and leave the listener feeling unsettled from the outset. The low-pitched singing is a welcome change and harks to gothic metal bands like SWALLOW THE SUN. Make no mistake, this is still miserable, but the approach is different in that you are not being bludgeoned, but rather dragged by the hand through murky waters. The harsh vocals then cut through the calm and give the sense of someone at war with themselves, trying to fight against their own inner demons in some kind of manic episode. The frantic bass strumming in the second half of the song gives off a wall of what can almost be described as white noise and once again creates a suffocating soundscape that refuses to let you get comfortable for even a moment.

The drum introduction at the beginning of Moros sounds fantastic. There is just enough reverb on the recording to add an eerie sound without taking too much away from the booming way that they are being hit. The whole feeling of this song is one of grandeur and it feels as though it is building towards something devastating from the very outset with its off-kilter samples and reverb drenched bass lines rumbling away in the background. When the song does kick in, it’s sonic battery at its finest. Pained screams soar over the top of the frantic drumbeats and the thumping bass that ties everything together so well. It draws comparisons to post-metal luminaries such as CULT OF LUNA, where everything feels as though it has a purpose and rather than repeating itself over and over it drags you along by the throat through a musical journey as the song progresses to its conclusion.

Elpis, the final chapter to this album is an all-out attack on the senses. The distortion is dialled up to 11 and as a result the whole thing feels a lot sludgier and heavier. The waves of feedback and background noise pour over the top of the instrumental as the pained shrieks ring out to further the audible chaos to a point where the band will no doubt have a body count of people’s speakers that have been blown whilst tackling this monolith of a track. You could be forgiven for assuming that an album of this ilk would grow tiresome and a little repetitive after a while, but somehow it never feels that way. Things never get stale, and the relentless beating that your senses take throughout this meandering journey into the darkness of the human psyche is something that plenty will revel in and for good reason. Embrace the darkness and tune in to one of the most savage metal releases this year has to offer.

Rating: 9/10

Monad is out now via Tartarus Records.

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