Album Review: Ferum - Asunder / Erode
Reviewed by Sam Jones
If there’s one thing you can say straight away about Ferum its that while you may have never heard their music before, you will absolutely be taken in by the grotesque album artwork. I certainly was, and is a considerable factor as to why I wished to check this album out at all. Ferum are a pretty new act in death/doom, but more interestingly we’re looking across the European continent to Italy where I’m not too familiar with the country having that many death/doom bands. Formed in 2017 around Bologna, Italy, the band released their EP Vergence in 2018, but then things went absolutely radio silent for multiple years before the band finally unveiled plans to release a full length album for Summer 2022. This is where we are now: on the cusp of the release of that said album: Asunder/Erode. Let’s take a look at this evil looking thing and prepare ourselves for the onslaught of dread that is naturally to come.
If there’s one thing Ferum deliver on right out of the gate it’s the clarity of their instrumentation. Some death/doom acts have been fuzzy, others have been monstrously stripped back. But Ferum provide a soundscape that feels like it’s forever seeking to punch you square in the jaw; the record on the whole possesses this particularly bold outline to it. Every drum strike, every turn and twist the riffs offer feels emboldened with bass. It’s utterly impossible not to pay attention to this record as the band perform, not because it’s soundscape is suffocating but because the songwriting has been rendered with such a defined finesse. The band help themselves in this case too, for their pacing isn’t too slow nor do they actively choose to quicken themselves either. The steady, methodical rate at which their riffs come at us help to give their sound a well-defined and deliberate zeal. It demonstrates how the band have applied acute levels of time and planning to their songwriting.
Continuing on from this, we also need to mention how there are just eight tracks throughout the record. That wouldn’t be much cause for noting however, coupled by the band’s trudging and steady pace for songwriting, it feels to lend their record a greater sense for longevity. The fact that this is a forty-five minute album is just as important too; each track that succeeds the next is going to feel fully realised and integral to the album’s overarching structure, not to mention the way in which we as the audience interpret and experience such a flow as well. In addition, there are no slower or ambient pieces that space this record out here and there, no clear distinctions in sections throughout the record’s runtime. From start to finish the band are intent on delivering you the most ruthless and macabre form of death/doom they can provide you with, and the fact that there are eight tracks, written as they are, is absolutely incremental in how we will view this record.
We’ve touched upon beforehand how the drums, much like the rest of the instrumentation feels outlined in a well defined finesse; you feel every cymbal strike’s crisp tone, every hint of resonance the tom-toms resound outwards with. Due to the nature of songwriting herein, we’re not going to receive blast beats. They’d feel out of place and juxtapose against the crawling and, at times, sludgy form of doom the band champion. What certainly took me by surprise was the ferocity at which their double bass drums were capable of exerting. These moments are few and far between, but when these drums are employed, the strength they imbue their sound with is utterly monolithic. The bass that’s helped to strengthen the songwriting’s clarity, has enabled the bass drums to harness the density of cinderblocks. It’s absolutely devastating and what’s more, they still don’t overpower the rest of the band; the record is merely heightened to new apexes of intensity.
But while the band deliver on riffs and songwriting that’s powerful and can’t be turned away from, there’s this sense that the guitar work isn’t here solely to grind you into the earth. The majority of the guitar work is in the riffs, the pounding and strong impacts you’ll come to familiarise yourself with throughout Ferum’s performance; you soon find the guitar work can also ring with this hollow interior as well, as if the band are reaching deep within the atmosphere of their record to pull out a sound that’s been echoing out from inside a long forgotten chasm. Ferum demonstrate they’re not just going to deliver the typical slab-heavy riffs typical of a death/doom record; you’ll find more atmospheric and immersive pieces that’ll draw you in subtly before unleashing a swathe of power unto you. It speaks volumes about the horror this record instils, it’s the nightmare behind the curtain that this record manages to imbue us with.
In conclusion, Ferum’s debut album is a roaring success as far as I’m concerned. The band’s insistence of a defined sound resulted in a record that doesn’t shy away from standing out of other band’s spotlights. The band want you to feel enveloped by their sound, yet not to a suffocating degree. Their sound surrounds you but never tries to dominate, it carries you along for the ride. I’ve heard various death/doom records now where the songwriting bears down on me yet the overall structure is pretty similar with a lacking diversity in riffs. Ferum have plenty on show for us and even with forty-five minutes in total across just seven full tracks and an outro, the band have tons to give and entertain us with. I thoroughly enjoyed this record, a band that managed to provide just as fierce a performance on record as their artwork was able to sport it stylistically. More than worth your time, Asunder/Erode is reminiscent of the decaying human form in sonic medium.
