Furze — Psych Minus Space Control
Furze is a legendary Norwegian bizarre black metal one-man band, renown for his odd and indeed "blasphemous" take on the genre. He's been active since the nineties and "Psych Minus Space Control" is his latest effort.
The trademark extremely messy and hallucinated artwork of the digipack is the first thing that catches the eye, with its mix of really nice drawings, totally weird pictures of bats and space that immediately set the mood for an autistic metal rollercoaster.
Apparently this is a concept album, devoted to mostly instrumental sounds that worship Black Sabbath, classic black metal and seventies psychedelic music. The crude and basic early heavy metal/doom style riffs slowly fall upon each other, intertwined with 90s Norwegian black metal tones and with a layer of out of control, sci-fi psych synthesizer that crawls in the spaces left. For once bizarre synth exploration is not relegated as intro material, and it's well implemented in the body of the tracks. Of course there are still a few traces of the "intro-syndrome" but it's still an impressive step forward.
There's also room for a bit of noisy/impro mess (the ending of "Psych Mooz Space Control" for example"), which is of course a very welcome addition, reminding me a bit of Roro Perrot's deranged guitar shredding. The only track with proper vocals and lyrics is the closing, super fast and extremely Sabbathian "When Always Ready". Furze's vocals here are totally over the top and heavily echoed, enhancing the psychedelic feel of the song. The incredible vocal-only ending to this track ranks among the weirdest things ever heard in a metal album. "Psych Minus Space Control" is a very atmospheric, variegated and moody album so I chosen not to go into much detail for every track: it's something you have to experience yourself. I know that black metal purists might dismiss this mix of influences as a joke but in my opinion it works really well and it deserves at least a try.
This is definitely an album I'll go back to often and with pleasure: it oozes love and affection for metal and psychedelic music, and it's clearly composed by a very talented outsider. Furze hasn't lost his touch!