Fishbrain
| If there is a band that evolves musically significantly, it’s The Firstborn. Portugal based band began his musical career under the name of Firstborn Evil, as the band name lets claim, the first musical steps of the band turns towards pure and hard black metal, with corpse-paints, leather strap with nails and all the rest. After a first studio album, the band totally changed their style and opts for something avant-garde progressive and at the same time also changes group-name to become The Firstborn. The Unclenching Of Fists is the second studio album of the band since they change their name and is meant to be the pivotal album of their evolution. This album was distributed by Procon Media.
Usually, it’s easier for me to write a review by expressing what I feel when I listen an album. For The Unclenching Of Fists, unfortunately, I have very rarely had the chance to enter their world. So, I will content myself to describe technically what the album contains. As described above, the album seems to be the pivotal album; in fact, previous albums of The Unclenching Of Fists are purely black metal while the album that follow, The Noble Search, is like a Mastodon’s album with black metal style. The Unclenching Of Fists could surprise with its originality. On the one hand, outside of classical instruments, the group uses, among other things, a Tibetan flute as electronic samples and few vocal effects. For example, the experimental interlude Perception reminds me the strange interlude The Fallen Kingdoms Of The Abyssal Plain coming from the album The Chthonic Chronicles of Bal-Sagoth. On the other hand, the group chose as main theme the Tibetan Buddhism and especially the Bardo Thödol (the book of the death). Finally, we are entitled to non-conventional constructions of songs.
I can’t say why I’m not attracted by this album, it could be due to the strange construction of the tracks, or the belief that instruments are put forward compared to the vocals or else the mix of different styles and universe. However, I must admit that technically, it’s well done: originality, musical research and the Tibetan topic should not be easy. In addition, the album title seems to give a positive message: The Unclenching Of Fists could be an invitation to non-violence, words of wisdom, greater openness? The use of the flute is very important in the music of The Firstborn, it gives an extra dimension. Lastly, lovers of Absu, Melechesh, Transcending Bizarre?, The Meads Of Asphodel, Blut Aus Nord, Jaldaboath, Negura Bunget should certainly be captivated by this album. |
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Added : 2009-06-24 21:27:50
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