Herzog emerge from the shadows to present their debut album.
Created in Belgium by Asgeir Amort, the band remained in the planning stages for a long time. With the help of renowned producer Déhà and drummer Hochofen, Furnace was released in 2023 by Amor Fati Productions.
The album opens with the strange Loss of Utopia, a rather dark introduction within which we progress very slowly, until we reach a slightly brighter touch before Acheminement reveals dissonance and heaviness. Raw guitar mingles with a throbbing rhythm, strengthened by cavernous howls, letting Black Metal influences take over during massive accelerations before Doom roots soothe the sound again. The airy melodies are reinforced with Melted Tesseract, where screams become more strident to accompany the icy tones, giving the track a completely different shade, although the mix retains its Old School approach just as on Oath of Weakness, where the fury is replaced by a dull heavy melancholy. The jerky march picks up speed at times, becoming at the end an as torn as heartbreaking race under a dark suffocating veil that runs out of steam to give way to the long majestic The Craftsmen, which lets its howling harmonics fly over an impressive rhythmic basis, whether slow or fast. Vocals are absent until the very last note of this shifting instrumental storm, but they return to haunt the ominous All Rites, adding otherworldly vociferations to heavy heady riffs, to which the musicians add grimy melodies. The composition soon comes to an end, leaving us with the multiple possessed howls of Oath of I, a fairly rhythmic track that skilfully alternates vocal parts to make it a veritable hymn of intense despair. The rhythm builds towards the end, just before we’re left with the keyboards of Oath of Us, an outro that slowly builds to almost epic proportions before breaking off cleanly, marking the end of the album.
Herzog asserts his dark abrasive Old School roots with ease. Although the mix will repel the less seasoned, Furnace‘s darkness is fascinating, letting the musicians hypnotize us by expressing all kinds of emotions with this visceral compendium.
90/100