Once upon a time, long long ago, there was “heavy metal”. Then thrash, doom, death metal, black metal, and all the ways in which hardcore began to hybridize with metal. Over time, the genres continued to divide, subdivide, intertwine, and absorb DNA from a universe of non-metal music. Metal has been segmented and categorized with a multitude of ever-expanding genre- and sub-genre labels, so many that we may soon deplete the storehouse of hyphens and slashes. But hey, there’s always room for one more, isn’t there?
How about “WAKE THE FUCK UP!” metal? You probably get the idea. Not so much a stylistic descriptor as a description of impact — the kind of explosive, blood-rushing musical cyclone that will kick your adrenaline into overdrive even when you think your brain couldn’t be more foggy or your ass dragging any more miserably.
What’s making us think about this is the electrifying video we’re now presenting for a heart-pounding song by the Oslo-based band ARV. Its name is “Fury“, and that is absolutely truth in advertising.
Of course, people can’t resist putting more conventional genre labels on ARV‘s music. You’ll see references to “post-metal”, “blackened post-metal”, or (as the band themselves put it) “Arctic post-metal from Oslo”. But those are all just clues, and they still leave a lot unsaid. Better yet is just to become exposed first-hand to the fury of “Fury“.
We’ve already used some metaphors. More to come: The song really does hit like a cyclone that dropped from the sky without warning… a cyclone of fire… which rampages in the midst of a violent earthquake. It moves at riot speed, propelled by furious drumming and magma-like bass upheavals. The riffing swarms and sears, boiling in sounds of despair as well as rage, while the vocals expel stunning screams that sound like a man being torn inside out, holding nothing back.
But although the song is relentlessly intense, it’s also packed with rapid twists and turns, delivering a plethora of varying drum-fills, dual-guitar riffing that brings in moods of bewildering hopelessness as well as derangement, start-stop blizzards of sound and bursts of percussive punishment, writhing and wailing melodies, rapid-fire insectile chugs, and chords that slash and crash with a kind of haughty imperiousness.
The really well-made video adds to the explosive thrills of the music, and it shows that ARV have, for want of a better term, real “stage presence”. They throw themselves into this song with… fury….
ARV is:
Frederik Hillestad: Vocals
Jens Hovden Storaker: Bass
Marius Bowitz: Guitar
Christian Nordheim: Guitar
Bjarne Burger Olafsen: Drums
“Fury” is off ARV‘s new EP Varmint, which is set for release on March 17th by Vinter Records. The song will also be released on digital streaming services on February 24th. ARV have said this about their new EP:
“Varmint is an unpleasant convergence of a destructive past, the fury of now, and the future to come. The music itself is a reflection of the usual trajectory of an unrested mind in a life of struggle.”
The music was mixed by Andreas Westhagen, and mastered by the famed Alan Douches. For more info about ARV and the release of both “Fury” and Varmint, follow the locations linked below:
https://www.facebook.com/arvband/
https://www.facebook.com/vinterrecords
