Album Review: Furze – Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies (Devoted Art Propaganda/Polytriad Fingerprints)

Renowned black psych metal band, Furze, will release its highly anticipated new album, “Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies” on the 15th of November 2024.

Furze was established in 1998 in Trondheim, Norway out of the dust of the Woe J. Reaper project. Under the Furze name, eight full-length albums were released with the most recent album, Caw Entrance also coming out earlier this year via Polytriad Fingerprints and Devoted Art Propaganda. On top of that Furze/Woe J. Reaper’s discography also consists of multiple demos, EPs and compilations. Furze is probably Norway’s (or the underground in general) most influential music to arrive in the late 1990s/2000 when talking about black metal newcomers. Even Fenriz of Darkthrone fame praised Furze and has featured it as his “band of the week” and played tracks from Furze on his Fenriz Radio.

Furze and Woe J. Reaper recently celebrated their 25th anniversary with the release of a limited and special edition cassette box set (available via Devoted Art Propaganda). The box set includes the original Woe J. Reaper “Necromanzee” demo from 1998 on one tape, while the second tape consists of unreleased material from 1992-1998 and is limited to only 100 copies. Still going strong in 2024, Furze now look to take listeners on a sonic journey through the depths of darkness, the haunting beauty of the unknown, on a trip that will solidify Furze’s status as masters of the “black psych” metal sound.

Furze is a one man band with all instruments and vocals delivered by Woe. J. Reaper.

Woe J. Reaper states:

“We invite you to journey the 9th full length of Furze – “Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies”. Creating sounds where eternity is haunting mankind’s will for survival and barking answers seems echoing, twisting that same will to the point of hunting Man’s soul back through spectral infinity. The album pushes the personal edge of diverse Furzement to dark delights. Heavily brandished with oldish black doom metal spirit to breed new blood. Long live Black Psych Metal!”

Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies comes with 6 new tracks, around 40 minutes, of mind bending metal to get stuck in to starting with the intro track, simply titled Intro. An intro it may be but it still clocks in at almost 3 minutes in length and for new listeners, it is an intriguing track. Ringing clean and clear melody that has a sombre tint to it plays out before it starts twisting, bending and morphing into a darker vibe through a mix of effects and background noises and what sounds like down tuning the guitar while playing it.

It’s interesting, but aside from the twisting and mind boggling world we have entered, doesn’t really give an awful lot of hints towards the dark and weird sounds we encounter form now on. It doesn’t take long into Beautiful Living on the Left Hand of Death to make you feel like you are being indoctrinated into a satanic or otherworldly cult. Musically it’s slow and thumping with more in common with doom but as the melodies twist, vocals join in, massively echoing and sounding more like whispered satanic scriptures. Effect heavy with a very old school effect style when the vocals are going, psychedelic is definitely the word. It’s very cool, very dark and despite the oddness sometimes distracting you from it, it’s really well written with solid guitars and plenty of twisting solos along with the repeating thump of drums, bass and meaty riffs.

Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies is our title track bringing more gurn inducing riffing and a lot more pace on the drums and guitars. Vocals are a little more typical of black metal at first – snarly, raspy and well bedded into the music. The vocals really add the blackness with the music having plenty of groove, doom and a black ‘n’ roll feel. I’m not loving the vocals, I must admit. I do like them in the context of the overall feel of the song.

There is definitely a heavier vibe to this one. Plenty of moments where the drums take off and strong riffs that keep it flowing. As the song progresses, more pf the psychedelic side grows into the track. A change in guitar tone, a little more effect work on the vocals in particular but overall it’s an enjoyable song with a nice balance between the psych stuff and solid blackened music.

Caw Entrance keeps the rocking tones coming with an extra dollop of distortion and some King Diamond like vocals. It’s a combination of oddities, melding mindboggling melodies with the out of this world vocals. I mean this is inventive stuff, but it is not an easy listen. You have to really break through the first immediate hearing and try to cover yourself in it’s entirety to appreciate it. If you can do that, you will find some really dark music, full, of creativity and mentally stimulating sounds. If you can’t, this will be a rough ride for you here where the psychedelic stuff reaches boiling point.

Waswasah is our penultimate track delivering a mass of satanic groove and plenty of doomy darkness. Meandering riffs and slow thumping drums create a neat foundation with vocals that are mixing between styles. Spoken word, snarling whispers and some backing growls and wails. I’m a bit concerned I may actually be allowing a ritual be read out and half expect to see a portal to hell open up beside me. This is a strong track though – probably my favourite so far. It just hits well with the foot tapping and head nodding beat holding all the quirkiness together nicely.

Furze close out Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies with the song Marrow Creed. It is a track that, like the whole album does, pushes the boundaries of psychedelic music, and demonstrates evolution in Furze. It’s gentile approach comes across more as threatening than soothing. The melody is slow and patient, leaving you on edge expecting something to happen. It does. but just not in the way you might expect. There is no sudden kick in or explosion of music. Just well thought out variations in the bubbling melody that leave you guessing as it twists and turns playing out entirely without vocals giving you a bit of time to reflect on what Furze have delivered here.

Furze themselves classify their music as unusual, black psychedelic and Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies is definitely that with a big emphasis on the “unusual”. Trippy doom sounds with blackness coming from some of the vocals and the overall vibe of the record, it’s a different beats. So far removed from what I listen to, I at first found it confusing and disorientating to listen to. As I opened my mind to it further, I found it to be clever, inventive and challenging to listen to. I like that and think it to be a very accomplished piece of art. It isn’t music I listen to regularly and I don’t think you could – you might find your mind unravelling if you did. It’s worth experiencing though and deserves some appreciation though it may be a little too challenging for anyone who likes structure in their music, including myself.

Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies will be available as a stunning Gatefold LP on 15 November 2024, in a collaboration between Devoted Art Propaganda and Polytriad Fingerprints. Devoted Art Propaganda have also prepared an on-demand print of the Necromanzee T-shirt design reinterpreted by von Ritter. This will only be available in pre-order and will be shipped on 15 November.

Pre-order Cosmic Stimulation of Dark Fantasies from Devoted Art Propaganda or from Furze at their Bandcamp page by following the links.

Furze Links

Bandcamp – Facebook – Instagram – Spotify – Devoted Art Propaganda