Music Review: False – Untitled

False - Untitled

Rating:

Technology has stripped away a lot of the mystery that used to be attached to music in the past.  Nowadays, you can type a band into Google and read their entire history like an encyclopedia entry.  Hell, you can even do this for unsigned bands.  With a few more keystrokes you can download their entire discography, with some bands it doesn’t even matter if the sum of their recorded output exists solely on vinyl- it’s still available online.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate technology a lot.  It’s allowed me to hear some incredible bands that I may have never heard otherwise, but at the same time I do miss the mystery.  So many bands have embraced the 21^st century and have multiple websites, profiles and even manifestos.  Sometimes it’s nice to simply not know.  Minneapolis, MN’s False have had virtually no presence on internet until very recently, and that is more based off reviews as they still don’t maintain a site or anything on any of the social media sites and yet it somehow works in their favor.

Enter False.  I first heard of False a few months ago through Adam Bartlett’s Gilead Media imprint.  Bartlett had heard through some of the members of Thou that a band called False had opened for them and that they were an absolutely incredible band.  The words “intense” and “relentless” were used with frequency and have rightfully appeared in almost everything I have read about them online (which is not much at all.)  Gilead Media, in my opinion, has yet to put out an even mediocre record and I’ve checked out every band Thou has ever name checked and became a fan as well.  I was already expecting to like what I would hear with False.

Even with the backing of Gilead and Thou, I was completely unprepared for what I was about to hear.

False blew me away.

Their untitled debut jumps right in with the track, “The Key of Passive Suffering” and goes right for the throat.  The first thing you hear is singer take a deep breath as the drums begin to swell.  It’s tiny little nuances that immediately set this recording apart, that make it more visceral.  As the song shifts and changes, there is scarcely any chance to breathe.  You don’t listen to it, you experience it.  The music has the black metal elements in all the right places, but it’s got more of a fresh sound to it.  Black metal fails so many times because the band is just trying to out-evil the next band and it comes off as forced and contrived.  This is not so for False.  Their sound is natural and fluid, which may sound like an unusual choice in words for a description of black metal, but it really make for a fresh sound.  2/3 of the way into the opening track the harshness stops for a few seconds of an Emperor-esque symphonic interlude.  Normally, I write this off as corny, but it completely works here and works just right.

The second track, “Sleepmaker” is not unlike the opener.  It matches the opening in terms of intensity and also has moments here and there where the listener is allowed to catch their breath, and it’s where the music lulls that it really allows for the swells and climaxes to work.  Metal these days often spends too much time either attempting to be too ambient and atmospheric or all brutal, all the time that it fails to achieve a balance and a well-rounded sound.  False captures this effortlessly and weaves the sounds together seamlessly.

The album is two tracks, that could very well have been split into several more, but since this album is released as a record, I think the fact that each side is one song adds to the listening experience.  The length is just under 30 minutes, following the Slayer Reign In Blood formula to be long enough to leave the listener wanting more.  It should also be noted that producer Adam Tucker achieved an awesome sound on this, this is some of the best production on a black metal album I have heard this year as well.  While some bands of the genre go out of their way to sound very lo-fi and raw, Tucker brought out a very natural sound that only adds to the intensity.  I’ll be honest, I haven’t come across a record in a long time that forces me to listen to the entire thing in one sitting, which is actually what I prefer with music.  I appreciate albums as a whole, and that is what False has really successfully written- a fresh, quality black metal record.

Stream False – Untitled