Album Review: Famyne – The Ground Below (Svart Records)

Carl Fisher 2 min read

Canterbury, UK doom merchants, Famyne continue their revitalisation of the genre with their new album ‘The Ground Below’. Released on May 13th, 2022 via Svart Records.

Modern doom trend setters, Famyne have been steadily and solidly building up a strong fanbase and a strong reputation since their 2014 inception. Something that will only be enhanced once this stellar new album explodes in the ears of hungry listeners.

If this is your first experience of the gloomy, melancholic but genre-blending band’s music, you’re sure to be sold. Even anti-doom fans will find themselves drawn to the darkness that Famyne exude here.

The unique combination of dirty, weighty, powerful instrumentation and spine-tingling, dynamic, lavish vocals, is so attention grabbing. Fresh, innovative and exhilarating; none of those words will come as surprise to long-term Famyne fans but what will, is the advancement of the band. Having honed their sound to near-perfection, this is a modern doom classic that can stand on its own two feet. While also paying tribute to the spate of British doom bands that laid the marker down.

Poignancy and doom go together very well, and few make misery sound as beautiful and crushing as Famyne do. Perhaps the best example of that coming from track Gone, an expressive journey that builds power to a breaking point and then eases the listener out with lightness.

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It’s far from the only track worth highlighting though. The opening number, Defeated immediately drops a concreate block of riffs on your head. Babylon slows things down to a crawl but injects these epic tempo shifts that make this one of the more winding tracks on the album. Then there is the finale of For My Sins, a track that has a psychedelic flavour warped by Famyne’s inimitable doominess. It also happens to feature an absolute killer guitar solo too.

It’s not short album but it feels like it ends far too soon. Which is surely a sign of a great release when you feel that sense of disappointment as things fade away.

Famyne – The Ground Below Full Track Listing:

1. Defeated
2. Solid Earth
3. Gone
4. A Submarine
5. Babylon
6. Once More
7. The AI
8. For My Sins




Links

Merch | Spotify | Instagram | Svart Records

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Famyne - The Ground Below (Svart Records)
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