ALBUM REVIEW: The Intimate Earth – Felled

Since the turn of the century, America has seen a birth of truly stellar black metal. The likes of AGALLOCH, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, PROFANATICA, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS et al have spearheaded the scene across the pond to a level where they can go toe to toe with the revered cultural home of the genre; Scandinavia. Enter FELLED. Seven years since their formation in 2014, their debut record, The Intimate Earth, has finally arrived. But is there enough quality on offer to enable the band to establish themselves amongst their contemporaries?

Sounding much more akin to the likes of AGALLOCH and the folk-laden black metal that has long been established across Europe, The Intimate Earth is a dynamic record to say the least. The Rite of Passage boasts swirling riffs and a sustained pummelling of double bass from Jenn Grunigen‘s drums that have plenty of bite and combine effortlessly with the violin whilst Cavan Wagner‘s vicious snarls cut through the mix with the utmost precision whilst Fire Season On The Outer Rim pulls on your heartstrings one minute then plunges you into a feeling of hopeless isolation the next.

Across a tight and concise 40 minute runtime, FELLED display a sound that is expansive yet finely tuned, maintaining a deeply atmospheric soundscape the ebbs and flows from vicious snarling black metal to passages of melancholic harmony that is channelled largely through the work of Tiffany Holliday, who dispatches exemplary harmonious vocals and work on the violin.

Speaking of Holliday‘s use of the violin, it’s easily the greatest strength of the FELLED soundscape. Rather than just being a case of being shoehorned in just for the sake of having an extra component to their sound, the way in which FELLED utilise the instrumentation of the violin across The Intimate Earth is utterly sublime. Often doing the heavy lifting to maintain the band’s sorrowful atmosphere, such as its mourning croons in Sphagnum In The Hinterlands, or consistently dancing with the metallic riffs throughout the record, it’s the key ingredient to FELLED‘s sound; the bedrock to expressing sorrow and atmospheric melancholy with the utmost conviction.

Unlike the likes of ESOCTRILIHUM, who deploy the instrument to haunt and raise the hairs on the back of your neck as you fall into the abyss, FELLED‘s folk laden black metal is much more focused on the solitary and cold experienced across snowy tundra. The aforementioned Sphagnum In The Hinterlands is a bona-fide epic as the band’s clever and varying use of intense barrages of double bass kicks and tremolo riffing ebb and flow to depressive grooves of solitary passages where FELLED truly make an impactful connection. Album closer The Salt Binding boasts the same melodic grandeur of atmospheric black metal heavyweights SOJOURNER as the softer vocal deliveries combine superbly with the mourning lead guitars and ensures the album ends on the most emotional of notes.

With The Intimate Earth, FELLED present a debut record of real quality. Expansive and incredibly powerful, the ability in which the band conjure and maintain an intoxicating atmosphere is world class and there’s rarely a dull moment. It may have taken seven years to get here, but the wait has been worth it.

Rating: 9/10

The Intimate Earth is set for release on July 2nd via Transcending Obscurity Records. 

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