Perhaps I’m not running in particularly cool social circles these days (excluding the EIN writers circle, you guys are awesome) but Fange has flown under my radar for a while. They first came to my attention only last year when I caught them open for Ulcerate. Passionate, sludge infused industrial metal that was heavy enough to crack the concrete floor they performed in front of, Fange went into my folder of bands to check out.
Well, one year later they are back on rotation with new opus, Purulences, an album that melds their distinctly feral sludge sound with the industrial aspects that started to appear on Puduer and Pantocrator, and was truly honed on last year’s Perdition.
Anyone who has worked their way through Fange’s discography understands that this is a group that is constantly reimagining their sound. Fange seemingly stands over a cauldron and mixes together a few different genre ingredients, primarily sludge, post-metal, and industrial. helping them focus on a specific sound for an album. What fans get to experience with each album is how much of each element the group have added this time round.
In sharp contrast to last year’s Perdition, an album that was primarily industrial and cold in nature, with the odd touch of melancholic melody, Purulences is guitar-driven, sludgy, and perpetually grim. Where Perdition focused on the frigid and mechanical nature of industrial metal, Purulences sets out a darker sonic landscape with monolithic riffs that could carve a valley through a mountain range, creating the perfect backdrop for the echoing and pain ravaged vocals of Matthias Jungbluth.
Now despite the band changing up their sound to varying degrees across albums, the specific album tends to follow a pretty linear trajectory. Fange aren’t seemingly interested in creating a complex tapestry of sounds to take listeners on a journey or challenge their understanding of sludge and industrial. Fange don’t dabble in the experimental in that sense. They are, however, all in on creating an atmosphere of lingering discomfort and boisterous despair, case in point, “Grand-Guignol”. Starting out with slow tempo, electronic pulses and spoken-word-esque vocal delivery before descending into frantic yells and pummeling riffs. The overall feel of this band is a focused attempt to do one thing per album and do it fucking well.
In the press materials for this release, the band states clearly that this album is a return to a riff is king mentality and it really shows. Songs like “Sans Conviction” and “Juste Cruele” center around aggressive grooves and fierce shouted vocals that underline the band’s sludge influences. The industrial aspects are still there but very much as a supporting theme and in a few different ways. Firstly, through use of the drum machine which, and it feels weird to compliment this, is superbly programmed. When I saw the band live it took me a bit to realise they didn’t have a drummer, while this can feel off with some groups, Fange play it off very naturally both on stage and on record. Fange also tend to employ synths to fill out space between sections in songs or as part of an intro/outro and this tends to add some respite from what is a thoroughly antagonistic affair.
Purulences is an album that on paper could be incredibly monotonous, yet in Fange‘s hands it is a premium slab of industrial sludge that ticks all the right boxes and feels authentic to the band’s ethos. On top of that they are obviously incredibly capable musicians who deserve a lot more recognition for the amount of work they put in, like relentlessly touring or releasing (roughly) a new album or EP every year since 2014. Fange will hopefully continue on the path they are evidently carving for themselves, and while we don’t know what sort of sound they will opt for next time round, we can be sure that they will continue to put there all into it.
