Fever Nest hails from Ohio, and their LP, Black Carrion Fowl, might be the first release most fans hear from the band. Fever Nest has released a few demos to their past credit, but Black Carrion Fowl is the band’s first major milestone since then.
The band lets song structures evolve, slowing down unpredictably, blasting to start songs, letting notes ring to the double-kicks. The bass has ample volume in the mix to follow the rhythm guitar, and the vocals sound like higher-pitched screams more than screeches.
The drums are pretty loud when the music falls away, and I get a sense some punk/hardcore is intentionally thrown into the mix to keep things interesting. The band typically like to slow down in the middle of tracks, then let the double-kicks machine gun to the sound of tremolo picked riffs and rung notes on the higher registers.
The songs are rather straight-forward, though. Sometimes, the tremolo-picked washes sound rather second-wave black metal inspired. The band comes out of the gate with energy. There’s really no track on this release that stays honed-in on slow sections for too long, and thusly, the band keeps things fairly easy for listeners to enjoy the music. From the get-go, the band doesn’t waste time with sound effects and ambient music. Fever Nest gets right to business. After that, the fill-ins signal the first major transition and the band returns to up-tempo pace to end the album.
Label: Knife Vision
Highlight track is “I Will Show You the Abyss.” The opening riff is by far the most original of all five tracks here. The song is catchy and delightfully evil. If this were Watain, I’d say they’ve come up with another ‘hit.’ I am banging my head like a metal virgin all over again, just introduced to the music that has made me a fanatic.
And as enjoyably-wicked Fever Nest sound on Black Carrion Fowl, the punk and black metal influences meld so intricately, it doesn’t sound as if the band do black metal and punk in a way that fans can’t tell apart. The synergy is created seamlessly, and although you can name the band’s biggest influences, you can’t just separate one from the other like you can tell a leg apart from Frankenstein’s monster’s arm.
The album cover is also a highlight. It’s easy to tell it from the other album covers, and tell me who the f*ck doesn’t like black candles and smoke?
A banger of a record that fans will want to play for years to come, Black Carrion Fowl has given Cvlt Nation fans an exciting trajectory of quality releases by Fever Nest to look forward to. Support the band so they get it. We need more of this shit!
