Artist: Flail
Country: Finland
Label: Gramschap
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2024
Despite that the band has existed since 2018, the Finnish Flail was unknown to me up til very recently. With members that are part of Kiira, Celestial Grave and formerly Ruho, the band had previously released a couple of EPs before their debut album ‘Dying Embers to Coldening Coals’ saw the light in 2020. Two days short of exactly four years after this debut, the band released ‘Within the Firths of Futility’ in October 2024, an album that came highly recommended. And after delving into it, I can now say for good reason.
The band has certainly forged an intriguing soundscape on ‘Within the Firths of Futility‘. On one hand, Flail is based on the regressive and straightforward bass-heavy Black Metal or Barathrum and Ride for Revenge, with only minimal presence of guitars. On top of this distorted and droning midtempo sound, they add a humming of keyboards, drawing clear parallels to Candelabrum. The vocals are hoarse and are spewed in almost poetic fashion upon the pulsating rhythmic section. The overall outcome is crushing and entrancing Black Metal that borders on Doom Metal and has a disturbing and haunting atmosphere.
‘Into Celestial Abyss’ starts with a colossal sound, heavily pulsating with dictating vocals. Despite the keyboards arising clearly, the atmosphere overall is pitchdark and suffocating, even though within the twelve minutes of playing time the mood sporadically open up. However, it would not be so strange to describe the song as a soundtrack for being trapped at the bottom on the ocean, contained with the dark and cold abyss without a chance to escape. The subsequent ‘A Sonorous Vigor’ is a shorter track with similar repetition, although a degree of variation comes from the drum patterns and the spacing of the vocals. The bass riff is hypnotising, and at this point we may even question whether guitars are entirely absent. They aren’t, as their make their strumming way into for instance ‘In Perished Time’, but they are more an exception than the rule. It’s really all about the big sound of the bass and the keyboards, though it’s important to state that the production has plenty of distortion, making this far from a clean sounding affair. In fact, it might be one of the most charming aspects of the music, this suffocating and overpowering heaviness with a clear raw edge that contrasts with the humming of the keyboards.
It’s the heavy plodding bass and percussion, mesmerizing its way through the tracks that so reminds of Barathrum and Ride for Revenge. Yet the comparison to Candelabrum is obvious, a feeling that is maintained through the juxtaposition of haunting keyboards and an intensely heavy percussive and bass assault. Brooding and suffocating Black Metal (some may catalog this under Depressive Black Metal I guess) with a ghastly atmosphere, it makes ‘Within the Firths of Futility’ a highly captivating and rather unique listening experience.
