Pavor - Furioso

Somewhere along the way death metal lost its soul. As bands began to play ever more technically challenging and seemingly innovative music, the atmosphere and moods that were created by the original old school death metal bands and were the initial hallmarks of the genre faded away to a large extent to be replaced by a cold, operation-ward sterility(the other direction of often pointless brutality in which the genre was pushed I shall not discuss here because it does not apply to the band or album under review.)

This sterility is partially the result of a great production job - great for a Britney Spears album maybe but far too slick and out of place on a death metal record. A good production job in which enough space is given for each instrument to be heard clearly is an essential ingredient in making a technical death metal album but it should not sacrifice all the grittiness that is a basic component of this music. The other problem, the really big one, was that most technical death metal bands lost sight of the vital issue of good songwriting and composition that creates the "feel" of an album, instead trying to outdo each other in attempting to dizzy the listener with spectacularly technical displays as a foundation, relying on the "wow" factor rather than songs and records that represent the philosophy of the music and strike a profound chord with the listener.

All this is not to say that awe-inspiring technical innovation (be it in terms of playing style or structure) and mood-creation are opposing elements. Indeed, several of the bands that were at the vanguard of the death metal movement fused the two quite well: Atheist, Immolation, Morbid Angel etc. in the US, Kataklysm and Gorguts in Canada, Demilich in Finland and in Germany, Atrocity and the band in question, Pavor.

Pavor is brilliant. They combine the best aspects of all that I spoke about earlier in the review. The Furioso album brings a tremendous amount of pressure to bear on the listener, surrounding him/her with an almost black metal feel along with the more obvious death metal aesthetics of the music. The guitars are excellent, being highly chord-technical without depending on the fretboard-masturbation style common to most modern technical death metal that yours truly is violently sick of. The vocals are deep yet decipherable growls with absolutely no tweaking or pitch-shifting involved. The drums do a commendable job of keeping very interesting rhythms without many overtly flashy displays. The bass is superlative. This is possibly the fastest, most fascinating bass work ever recorded on a metal album. Throughout each song, the bass picks its own path, alternating between providing backing rhythm and going off into its own dimension making the outcome even more vicious. There is as much lead bass on this album as lead guitar. The lyrics are great too, topical, very well-written (with the aid of a thesaurus, no doubt!) and might even improve your vocabulary.

Pavor's Furioso is an extreme metal record that isn't very easy to get into because, knowing Pavor, of everything being done right. The songs are reasonably long, well-structured and complex, being very dense, saturated, atmospheric and technically boggling with nary an instantly catchy section in them. This requires real concentrated effort from the listener and the greater your contribution in listening the more this album will reward you. Each listen reveals facets of the music that were passed over by the unwary listener the previous time.

The band have become masters at using technicality in ingenious ways. Not surprising since they have taken their time about it too. Formed in 1987, first album in 1994, this, the second in 2003 and no sign yet of a third. The last song on this album, "Dilettante's Dilemma" mentions an axiom that is actually ciphered in the music of the song which a gifted musical ear can presumably decode. Beat that! In the liner notes of the CD, the band instructs "wimps, dilettantes, kiddies, fakes and other lowlifes" that try to be "evil, brutal or even musically relevant" to "Stay at home and practise".

To add to all this, Pavor has got to be the most defiantly underground band of all time. Refusing to sign to any record label, they record and produce their albums themselves and fans can buy the CDs directly from their website (and please do buy it, not download it.) They do not compromise or allow anything the least bit commercial to creep in, doing exactly what they want with their music and whether you like it or not, well... This epitomises the spirit of the underground though all their fans would surely be much obliged if Claudius Schwartz, Armin Rave, Michael Pelkowsky and Rainer Landfermann moved their thrice-worthy behinds a little oftener to the recording studio. Revel in this album and be prepared for a long wait for the next one.

July 23, 2010

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