Dark Fury "W.A.R." CD

W.A.R. stands for "We Are Racist".

For those who are unfamiliar, Dark Fury are a polish NSBM band from Wrocław that is decently well known in the black metal scene. Personally, I wasn’t too familiar with them until I randomly had the chance to pick up this CD for a low price and decided to buy it with a couple other CDs, not expecting too much. With that being said, W.A.R., which stands for “we are racist” according to the booklet that came with the CD, isn’t nearly as bad as the humorously idiotic name would suggest. In fact, after a few listens, the album has grown on me quite a bit. Before I get into the music on W.A.R., let me set the record straight. Dark Fury isn’t reinventing the black metal wheel on this album. This sound has been done by other bands before. If you are looking for originality, stay far away from this album, but if you’re after a new black metal album to listen to and can look past the racist ideology, this might be worth a look.
The music on W.A.R. ranges to fast and intense to menacing and atmospheric throughout its duration. Tracks like the title track and the furious “The Storm” open with vicious riffing and blast beats that are sure to get the average listeners blood flowing. Outside of these fast sections, there is a heavy emphasis on menacing and oppressive atmosphere. The majority of vocals on the album are handled by a guy who simply goes by the pseudonym “K.” and his style is a sinister sounding growl. His growls aren’t particularly deep, but they get the job done for the most part. There are some times on the album where it sounds a bit goofy, but overall his vocals add to the dark atmosphere. The rest of the vocals on the album are handled by a guy going by the name “Njord” and these vocals are excellent. They are a high pitched black metal shriek that sounds absolutely throat shredding. Personally, I consider these vocals one of the highlights on the album and I find myself returning to the songs that utilize them more often than the ones that don’t. Vocals aside, the other performances on the album are pretty good. “K.” and Njord handle the guitar work on the album. The guitar riffs on W.A.R. are generally quite good, even if they are typical of the black metal genre. There is a lot of tremolo picking in the fast parts and during the slower parts the notes sort of ring out creating a dense atmosphere. The bass on the album, handled by “K.”, is pretty hard to make out in the chaos, so it's hard to really say much about it. Finally, the drums on the album are handled by a guy going by the name “P.” and these are also handled pretty well. He uses a lot of blast beats and double bass throughout the album’s duration. All of his work on W.A.R. sounds pretty tight to me and I find it pretty enjoyable overall.
Performances aside, the production on W.A.R. is pretty good for black metal standards. The album sounds very organic without any triggered drums or vocal effects or any of that stuff, but it also doesn’t have a bunch of guitar static or a wall of sound. The one drawback that it has is that the guitar solos sound terrible in the mix. There aren’t very many of them but they are loud, abrasive, and poorly recorded. Luckily they only show up a few times over the album’s duration.
In the end, the main issue with W.A.R., aside from the questionable ideology, is that there are plenty of other black metal albums/bands that sound similar to this. The listener’s enjoyment of W.A.R. is based almost solely on how much they like the stereotypical black metal style, cliches and all. With the exception of the growled vocals, most of the things going on here are tried and true staples of the black metal genre. If you are a black metal fan and are willing to overlook the edgy ideology, you may find this album to be enjoyable like me, but if you aren’t too into the genre or are looking for an original take on this style of music, I would suggest you look elsewhere.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...