As black metal becomes more acceptable and gains more fans, largely down to the likes of Deafheaven, Alcest and MØL, there are some artists intent on fusing genres that really shouldn’t work. I think back to last year when Pyramids twisted black metal with reggaeton and I loved it. Sleep Token and Sace6 take modern R & B and create a poptastic fusion that I also enjoy. So now we have Foghazer with He Left The Temple which blends trip hop and black metal. Some might wretch at the notion but not this listener, I was enthralled to find out what this might sound like being a fan of both genres.
I’m pretty certain Foghazer is the work of one man, who hails from Berlin. Details are purposely sketchy as he essentially lurks in the shadows on record, and off it. Opener ‘He’ drops a slamming crisp beat with some ghostly guitar tones and some hip-hop scratching. While we’re in this DJ Shadow twilight zone an operatic voice drifts into the mix and the intrigue levels peak. You wait for the black metal elements to kick in and indeed before long there’s a wave of distorted guitars to contend with, cutting like buzz saws. ‘Left’ pulls the listener into a mire of thick distortion and slo-mo beats, the first hint of blast beats chop with precision, but those pesky scratches still interject randomly.
Blueprint firmly established, I reckon the album is likely intended to be listened to in one sitting, observe the titles merging into a sentence. ‘The’ is the first track to pull in some scathing guitar tones over rampant blast beats before switching into a jazzy laid-back groove. Yes, we’re still scratching. ‘Temple’ hits the hardest with the first black metal screams over furious swathes of fast beats and thunderous noise. Those twanging guitars that glue the tracks together becomes even more western movie-esque in ‘And’, the layered guitars, heavy droning bass and slinky drums really hit the spot with an incessant groove. Dynamically, ‘And’ is the most adventurous track with surprising twists and turns along the way making for a more engaging listen.
‘Fog’ has a superb head bobbing groove with sublime beats and a haunting guitar loop, but them fucking scratch drops are starting to irritate somewhat. When the track bites hard, you forget the offending noises are there and the fusion is more pleasurable. The operatic voice returns in the downbeat ‘Followed’ but exposes itself as a sampled effect which leaves this listener a little disappointed. The searing loops that writhe underneath the vocal melody are acerbic and icy. ‘Him’ drifts into a funereal tempo as ghostly atmospherics swirl in the mist. It would be trance inducing and much more listenable if the track wasn’t overrun with intrusive scratch tones. Closing track ‘Out’ pulls in some very gothic synth tones and you wonder where these have been up until now. This could be a backing track for a Wu-Tang Clan track, and a very good one at that.
I’ve often wondered what a fusion of trip-hop and black metal would sound like as the genre undergoes various merges with styles that are polar opposites. Foghazer has got a good thing going on here. A little pruning of those irritable scratch sounds, maybe another layer or two of guitars and finally some more vocals and I’d be all over it. For now, this is an intriguing experiment that could really transcend into something special.
