Список групп Gothic Death Furbowl Those Shredded Dreams

Back before Johan Liiva was in Arch Enemy, he and drummer Max Thornell (who would later get back together to form Hearse) got into a band called Furbowl. They weren’t around for long, and they weren’t recognized at all when they were around, but surprisingly enough, released a solid debut album. The album is called “Those Shredded Dreams” and it’s the only Furbowl I’ve heard, since their stuff is pretty hard to come by.

The overall sound of the album is extremely dense, and really heavy. The production is pretty good considering the band is new, with the bass high up in the mix and adding to the dense feeling.

The first song begins with a strange intro that reminds me of one of those off-key interludes that are at the beginning of every song from The Seven Harmonies of the Unknown Truth album by Ildjarn. It breaks suddenly into a fast riff of extremely down tuned and distorted guitars. You quickly get hit with a sort of wall of sound that crushes and dominates. It quickly becomes clear that this band isn’t a cheap knock-off of another band like so many bands today are. For a band from ’91, these guys really know how to make that heavy sound. That’s pretty much what the album is; a heavy crushing sound of awesome riffs that are genuinely heavy metal. The only problem with the first song is the length. I’ve listened to plenty of songs longer than this one, but it does drag on a little too much. It does have a nice solo section and a lot of good riffs to make up for it though.

The next song is Nothing Forever, my definite favorite on the album. A fast tempo and catchy, and Johan Liiva’s vocals are much more understandable, but it still has that heavy feel that only heavy bass can bring. The wall of sound is reduced from the last song, but it’s still present. The highlight of this song is the solo section from 1:50 to 2:55. It’s really great, starting off slow and moving into a melodic speed solo. Best of all, unlike a lot of death metal at the time, it isn’t all over the place. It relates more to Iron Maiden and bands like that than it does to Cannibal Corpse or Slayer, and it perfectly compliments the song. Of course that’s what you’d expect, because, looking at the credits, you’ll see that Michael Amott of Arch Enemy and Carcass, wrote the solo in this song.

Razorblades starts off with a good bass riff, but the clean vocals from Liiva are a little strange, although I guess I am used to them, being familiar with Johan Liiva’s later band Hearse. The song is overall a lot slower than both of the previous songs, but it’s a good song and sets a break in the feel of the rest of them.

The next two songs aren’t all that different from each other, mainly differing in lyrical content and the riffs. They don’t match the standard of the other songs for sure. Desertion is a really quick verse-chorus-verse-chorus song that ends in less than 3 minutes. Sharkheaven has a slightly faster tempo, and I prefer it to the last one because I like the riffs better in this one, since they feel more 80’s hard rock oriented. There’s also a little solo in this one, and a few riff differentiations towards the end.

The title song is another good one, probably my other favorite on this album. It starts with a cool bass solo in the introduction and falls into a mid-tempo song that picks up in speed at the chorus. There are some softer guitar interludes and sections of bass accompanied by keyboard in there, which lets the song progress and it doesn’t feel like it drags on in the end. The wall of sound feel is there again, although not quite like it was in the first song. It comes to a close with a solo from the “Satanic Violin of Doom” (no kidding, that’s what it’s referred to in the credits of the CD booklet). It’s a good way to end a good album, and although there are only 6 songs in the whole thing, and the total length of the album is only 31 minutes, it doesn’t feel very short. I know that somewhere out there is a version with a bonus CD of the band’s live material and demo material, but I’ve never seen it before, so I’m not going to include the songs that are on it.

Despite all the positives I’ve mentioned, there’s one big thing about this album that drags it through the mud really fast, and that’s the fact that, when looking back at the album, the sound of each song doesn’t quite differ as much as you’d like it to. While the songs do differ a lot in tempo, I guess Those Shredded Dreams comes off as a little bit monotonous. Really, that’s the only thing that holds this album back from being great. Maybe it’s partly owed to the fact that Liiva’s vocals aren’t quite as ranged or as passionate as they were in his later bands, or the fact that everyone in the band is quite young and inexperienced. It’s still a pretty good album, though. If you want to hear Johan Liiva in all his bands, then I say don’t pass this up. It isn’t his best album out there, but it’s certainly pretty good.