The worst that can happen by pairing two contrasting ideas is it doesn’t sound or feel pleasing or appropriate.
The best that can happen by pairing two contrasting ideas is Fohn, a three-piece Greek outfit that went all in on their debut release.
Their Funeral-Doom-meets-Jazz opus, Condescending (Hypaethral Records) is a dreary dirge that is slightly brightened by a dissonant, atonal saxophone. The transitions within the four tracks feel natural, as if the artists are simply the messengers of a higher being, delivering sensational work in the process.
Most importantly, this record is a fucking juggernaut. The places it takes you from a smoky speakeasy filled with mischief to the aftermath of a titanic clash between two bloodthirsty armies who won’t stop until every last adversary is dead.
Each song could stand as its own identifiable EP in its own right. They tell separate stories both sonically and visually and provide ample room for contemplation and imagination.
“A Day After” opens with kids laughing and playing, contributing to a dreamy presence. Georgios Schoinianakis blasts their kit with the intensity of a brutish beast and Nikos Vlachakis belts out vocals with their final breaths of life. Eventually, Georgios Miliaras’s dense bass gives way to a perusing six-string that jumpstarts choral lines.
Condescending concludes with the seventeen-minute behemoth “Persona.” A woman presumably being interviewed details her heroin addiction and apparent prostitution experiences. The music begins to down out the voice, and cries of pain and a sense of danger is speckled throughout.
On top of all that is a dreary saxophone breeding false hope; a lullaby that sounds like an alarm’ and jarring machinations that conjure a group of skeletons performing on a stage.
Quite the experience. Fohn is a must-listen if not simply for the wealth of juxtaposition which is so admirably balanced and blended. It’s unabashedly Funeral Doom that pushes the boundaries of a subgenre that seemingly had none.
Buy the album here:
https://hypaethralrecords.bandcamp.com/album/condescending
8 / 10
MATT COOK