### Fell Voices: Fell voices

#### 03/02/12 || Will Cifer

The proliferation of medical marijuana in southern California might explain the epic slacker black metal of Santa Cruz’s Fell Voices. These guys partake more than fellow Californians Ash Borer, while following a penchant for wandering songs and a cryptically anonymous presentation. Musically the comparisons cease. Fell Voices adhere to open and roomy lo-fi sound. At times the music on the two nameless tracks reminds me of drugged out surf rock set to a blast beat. This untitled album was released last year through Gilead Media, but the album it self had been circulating in the underground at least a year before.

Not as tight of a machine as other bands of their ilk, they give the songs abundant room to breathe . The jangle to their gallop colors the album a different shade of raw than their American contemporaries . The first song jangles with the feel of an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack if composed in the throes of heroin withdrawal . The wretched vocals mid way through the second song jerk you out of the drone induced trance. I’ll bet my window seat on the ride to hell there are no real lyrics to this song and the vocals are only random gags and gurgles of a choking chicken.

Overall more stoned than scorned, the trade mark wall of white noise the current crop of American black metal is known for as it never solidifies. This does not mean the album isn’t heavy, it is just not in the way you might except your heavy to be served. Here it is served best like revenge cold and bleak as stark desert night rather than a frosty Norwegian one. However the ambient feel and production should satisfy those of you who have worn out your copies of “ a Blaze in the northern sky”. Think of this as blazing the western weed, because for some reason i can’t shake the feeling of a drugged lethargy hovering over this album.

The production gives the classic necro rawness a shadow of something closer to the early Discord records discography, leaving no room to be surprised by the fact the musicianship is merely functional for what they are creating. The drummer coming closest to having noteworthy chops. The overall atmosphere created here is what this band has going for it, they pull it off better than the more produced and preformed “Roads to Judah“ album Deaf Heaven was praised for . Fell Voices aren’t fools trying to out heavy or grim any one with this. Even with all the generous allowances for the genre , in some ways this one straddles a curious fence riding the boundaries of what is we think of as metal black or otherwise.

These 22 minute songs aren’t going to find their way on my iPod, but serve as a soundtrack to many a cold night banging away at the computer. It could also provide good entry point to black metal for those girlfriends who just listen to stoner rock or Mogwai. This is best prescribed in regular dosage to the metal head who requires the emphasis in the term atmospheric black metal placed on atmosphere . This might cause drowsiness and should be consumed with alcohol when too stoned to operate heavy machinery.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Gilead Media
- Website: “fellvoices.blogspot.com”: http://fellvoices.blogspot.com/
- Band
- Joseph: bass , vocals
- Tucker: guitars
- Mike: drums , vocals

- Tracklist
- 01. Untitled
- 02. Untitled