I had an argument with a friend once when I was listening to a record on a road trip (I was driving, by the way) because he didn’t see the value to this piece of music since it didn’t have easy few-minute-long songs with traditional structure. He’s smarted up since then. But it makes you realize some people see records and songs as very specific things.
“Ochre & Ash” is the first new music from Fauna in 13 years, and like this album’s three predecessors, if you’re looking for quick hooks and playlist fodder, you have stumbled into the wrong place. Fauna’s musical output always felt more like ritual than record, and its sole members Vines and Echtra go to great lengths to help your spirit and lineage connect with music that goes well beyond the ordinary. This record imagines the death process from physical end through the passageway into rebirth, and along the way, the band haunts and devastates, bringing you into the experience in a manner that illuminates your entire being. It feels like being in the center of the ceremony, your essence rising to the sky.
“A Conjuring” begins with wild cackling, horns signaling ritual, feral wails and chants collecting and growing in scope. Drumming drives as buzzing fills the air, a final chime noting the end and the transition into “Nature & Madness.” Guitars churn right away, the drumming echoing as cries encircle, blistering as patterns repeat. Howls thicken along with the hypnosis, guitars rampaging into a mesmerizing flow, and then the pace bursts open. The ground rumbles as the band stomps, melodies rain down with ferocity, bleeding into “Femoral Sun.” Here, sounds swirl and tingle, chants fill the air, and the swarming gets thicker, stinging before fading away.
“Labyrinths” starts with clean guitars dripping, the aura feeling hypnotic, and then things turn doomy, melodies turning tornadic. Guitars buzz as the playing drips, burning into snarling howls, and then a newfound savagery explodes. The pace pummels before working into a brief calm, the final moments slowly battering as winds whip into “Mockery” that opens with wild animals howling. Barks echo as strange, feral noises penetrate, a gentle melody washing over and setting the pace for 23:05-long closer “Eternal Return” that instantly bursts at the seams. Raw wails strike as melodies make the room spin, speeding and hulking as the drums engulf. Rage builds and bristles before temperatures cool, a pocket of ambiance spreading and resetting minds. Volcanic eruptions spit rock as the pace pounds away, guitars smearing as howls spread ash, stretching muscle as chants arise. Dark fury settles as the power rips at reality, howls sting, and a barnstorming attacks blisters into the dark.
“Ochre and Ash,” like all Fauna records, is an experience, not a mere collection of songs you can pick and choose to absorb. This is a journey into the unknown as well as a reunion with our savage selves, the traits we inherited and still exhibit that have been established long ago. This is perfect music for your own retreat, even if only in your mind, to retrace your steps and prepare for nature’s inevitable final phase.
For more on the band, go here: https://fauna.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://spkr.store/collections/fauna
For more on the label, go here: https://en.prophecy.de/
Meat Mead Metal 