Band – Furia
Album – Huta Luna
Country of Origin – Poland
Genre – Black Metal/Experimental
Release Date – October 12, 2023
Label – Pagan Records
Author – Rz
The Polish titans of blast beats and riffs hath returned! I’m not talking about Behemoth or Mgla of course, I’m talking about Katowice based boundary pushers Furia! Formed in 2003, Furia has evolved from a traditional black metal band on their first three full length releases to one of the most interesting and introspective bands. Starting their dive into experimentation with 2014’s Nocel, the band released their most dynamic, somber, and expressive release in 2017. Księżyc Milczy Luta saw the band develop a slower, almost jazzier sound, which propelled that album to the top of my list that year. Following that, the band released W snialni in 2021, which shed all black metal influence in favor of true avant garde experimentation. Now in 2023 we have Huta Luna, where does this album fit in this band’s ever expanding sonic exploration. Come with me as we dive into Furia’s latest offering!
I’m going to level with you all right now on my thoughts, I was beyond surprised with this album, initially maybe even let down? I’m not sure. Coming off of Księżyc Milczy Luta which I think is probably the band’s strongest release, the lack of experimentation left me wanting more from this album. So I kept listening, and listening, and LISTENING until I uncovered the secret flavor of this album; TEXTURE! These tracks, the first nine at least, are extremely textured songs. All of them are relatively straightforward and upon first listen, all pretty basic. The musicianship here is as you’d come to expect for the band, top notch and tight. All these songs are driving, super fast paced rippers.
The album opens with a crazy banger, “Zamawianie trzecie”. With its feedback and spoken word intro to its crashing and triumphant riffs, the track sets the tone for the rest of the album. “Swawola niewola” is probably my favorite track on the album. Similar to the previous track (and subsequent ones), “Swawola” speeds along but with beautiful guitar layering. The main riff continues over and over in the background while a strummed clean guitar cuts through the chaos until the break where everyone in the band yells “SWAWOLA NIEWOLA” before the track SLAMS back in with a variation that continues until the jangly and chaotic outro.
Speaking of layering, let’s talk about production. The guitar production is some of my favorite that I’ve heard Furia do. The tone is super dynamic and heavy. The clean guitars are super lush and super jangly at the same time. This is most evident on “Na Kon” where the clean guitars thunder over the distorted ones. “Idz” takes the cake for being my favorite when it comes to riffs and layering them. After the track breaks, the main riff comes back with these harmonies that are jammed far enough in the back to where they seem buried but they force your ears to focus in on them. The drumming is olympic on this album. Every song is just blasting and blasting and it never gets boring or repetitive. The drumming on “Wracaj” is really dynamic with little cymbal accents marking changes in the riffs. The bass is pretty audible which has been commonplace on Furia’s releases since their first album. Sars’ bass playing is always pretty interesting for me, as it jumps between pretty straightforward playing to hitting huge chords at half the time of the rest of the track.
Now before I give you my final thoughts, I have to talk about the last song. “Księżyc, czyli Słońce” is a thirty minute experimental instrumental. I find the sound design to be pretty cool, and the journey the song takes you on sonically is pretty interesting. It comes right out of “Gora” and begins harsher with more aggressive drones, before subsiding into woodsy barnyard field recordings. The song really threw me off at first, but Furia’s last album was all experimental noise style stuff so I reckon it makes sense.
Alright final thoughts time. Huta Luna is pretty sick. Every song is a three to four minute Olympic ripper. The riffs are all super catchy and the guitar layering is pretty sick. If you were looking for a slower, moodier, Księżyc Milczy Luta style album, this isn’t going to scratch that itch. But if you want something more akin to Marzannie królowej Polski than this is going to be the one for you. Hopefully you all enjoy it, as it’s a banger release.
