The Dutch drone/noise/sludge metal band Farer, earlier known as Menhir, this year has released their debut album “Monad”, serious, apocalyptic and furious soundtrack to a total suffering. With the help from labels Aesthetic Death and Tartarus Records they have started to spread the darkness among the lovers of experimental extreme music, slowly gaining the audience with this extraordinary piece of art.
Farer is an unique band not only because of their unusual choice of musical genres, they play this kind of extreme and noisy metal without guitars, but with two bass players. So it is therefore clearly predictable how low and heavy this album sounds. This release is out of commercial market, it’s not even a contest, but this album is truly remarkable and exceptional in its honesty and willingness to dig up the most grim and filthy issues to the surface. So almost one hour of descending into the pure darkness without compromises awaits everyone, who dare to immerse himself into this noisy musical chaos.
There are only four songs on “Monad” with a common idea and gloomy atmosphere throughout the record, blasting with violence and pure malice. The first song “Phanes” offers a hellish journey in a raw and monotonous concentration of hatred through the primitive bass guitar riffs and irregular emotional screams. After the drony and noise minimalistic passage the heaviness transforms into depressive black metal piece with desperately passionate screaming. There is some soothing psychedelic ambient reprieve with unctuous whispers and occult drums, and then the atmosphere of the song abruptly saddens, but everything ends in a familiar noisy chaotic alertness.
“Asulon” has a double bass exposure, all is drenched in a low sound of bass-guitar, slow and primitive, overburdening the drony futuristic rhythm with a slight synthetic tinge. There are some allusions to psychedelic doom, and even some flirtation with stoner rock, making the fuzzy sound slightly southern. The screams are not so uneven here, and the shamanistic drums and disharmonious solos are really pertinent on this structurally discordant song.
“Moros” is a more sludgy post-metal song, but with some references to noisy and experimental trippy music. The cosmic sounds through drony and fuzzy wall of bass guitar destroy the structural pattern, making it chaotic and complicated. But the mournful synthetic mood and major chords on the noisy background pattern thoughtfully strengthens the spirit and suppress the hopelessness.
“Elpis” is the most melancholic and pensive track on the “Monad” with a noisy background, but a post-rock/shoegaze optimistic temper in the context of doom metal. Even with this post-depressive attitude it doesn’t sound so freakishly dark like the first two compositions, it still conveys the monotonous calmness without rapid changes. And the silent but eerie ambient outro finishes off this 53-minute long dismal voyage of miseries and despairs in such a noisy manner.
Farer isn’t one of the mainstream bands with strict rules or traditional composing approach, their music is drifting between total chaotic blackness and minimalistic noisy meticulousness. Even the cover art of “Monad” expresses these feelings, in the geometrical textures there is an evident flaw of chaotic disarray. Their music is similar to a contemporary art concept, it’s not for everyone, and it demands all the attention to grasp the very core of the creation, but if there is a connection between the observer and the piece of art, then the miracle happens.
Release date: November 20th, 2020
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