(Comrade Aleks has brought us the following interview with Woe J. Reaper, the maniac behind the Norwegian “Black Psych Metal” band Furze, whose latest album Caw Entrance is out now.)
Trondheim-based black psych metal project Furze has a proper discography, and their eighth album Caw Entrance was released on 5 April 2024 by Devoted Art Propaganda from Polytriad Fingertips. Once again Woe J. Reaper supplies his followers with quite eccentric black metal filled with old school vibes and macabre delivery.
And yes, yes, Furze’s founder keeps the same approach to recording and delivery of his material — it’s better to quote him directly:
“You don’t like the production? Oh, luck gently off! Coherently we advise all listeners to grab a nice pair of headphones and listen to this album that way. No background listening sessions will work and not even your stereo for that sake. It’s strange but true: special details were impossible to secure into both ways of listening. Don’t worry: lots of work was laid down with mastering too, and what’s closer to a simple level adjustment from the mix worked like a superhorse so the result is clear: Headphone listening sessions are the only way to enter one’s Caw Entrance.”
I welcome you to learn more about Woe’s motivation and what BLACK PSYCH FUCKIN’ METAL is.
Hi Woe! How are you? What’s going on in your lair now that Furze’s new album is released?
Hey, I’m packing some orders, cleaning cat shit (from 8 kittens and 6 cats), working a lot of extra jobs, general organizing at home, rehearsing, and sorting out contracts and more with DEVOTED ART PROPAGANDA. (And how could I forget, daily love with some WELTERING IN BLOOD hahaha!!)
Furze’s previous album The Presence was released in 2018. What happened next after that? Where have you been all this time?
The clockwork was like usual, 3 years later on, in 2021, FURZE’s mighty BLACK PSYCH TORMENTOR, a 5 track MLP appeared on Apocalyptic Empire Records (the label which originally signed FURZE in 1999). From which the title track there has been made a (first ever from FURZE!) video too, didn’t you see it? It turned out quite original but very fuckin metal! It’s sad that Tiller of AER had to lay down his business man. He’s been running that since ’94 (mailorder)/’99 (record company).
THE PRESENCE… LP was then re-released together with the BPT release as THE PRESENCE OF THE BLACK PSYCH TORMENTOR (digital/CD) and as IN THE PRESENCE OF THE BLACK PSYCH TORMENTOR (TAPE on Screaming Skull Records in conspiracy w/ AER). If you missed out on everything after THE PRESENCE… you’ll have BLACK PSYCH TORMENTOR (Dec’21), NECROMANZEE 2 tape set (on DAP Nov’23!) as well as the new album CAW ENTRANCE (out since April ’24) to check out!
The question is, where the HELL have you the reader been, not been finding FURZE ‘till now huh ??!!???!!! Bloody shame on you! What did you do? Listen to «norwegian Black Metal» ????? Did you like it ? Your friends like it ? Oh’ its SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO great right…. etc etc…
I see that the run of The Presence… was only 300 copies. Are you used to this underground reality? Is it ok to have such a limited run of physical copies?
Originally THE PRESENCE… only came as 300ex vinyl – a very few orig 2018-pressings might be available as you read this on our Bandcamp btw. Which is fucking strange, cuz it’s also a very stimulating, and «complete» FURZE release. I guess my goal is to have like a 1000LPs and 1000 CDs spread and sold of each release (including re-releases of the back catalogue) cuz then it’s possible to have it all in, plus instead of working like 2 times more normal work in order to AFFORD FURZE and then crunch in all rehearsing, planning, writing, layout, artwork, contracts, packing/shipping, interviews, promo, studio-related, etc etc upon that…. I don’t have a life outside FURZE-JOB-HOME-related matters…. last gig I attended was in 2019 seeing VULCANO here in Oslo.
I guess you can say I’m shining a shed of light from the heart to the brain and back, and on each way back and forth, licking my ears clean for a new go! I am FAR under the ground of the marketplace in every place you’ve ever been and you must dig even deeper to find some haha!
My biggest DIG lately was a (root system visual on top about 80-100 cm radius) jasmine tree, ordered by my wife! Hell that was insane work… been in the ground since the ’60s… takes «a couple of hours» to dig up… yeah right… one week later…… aaaaaaarrrrghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Your debut full-length album Trident Autocrat was released in 2001. How far away do you see yourself now from that point? And, let’s say, does the Trident Autocrat material still speak to you?
It’s actually a re-recording of “Avail the Autocrat of Evil” from that 2000 album on CAW ENTRANCE, the new album, and it both captures the original’s gefeel and adds more heaviness to it. It’s also a little different vocal arrangement, improved in my eyes. YES the material was played live in 2017 on INFERNO and it somehow lives on… in fact the 9-track 1999 promo (3 tracks left out for the LP in 2000) is going to be in focus too, soon enough… the tracks here are with a different BASS guitar and one different GUITAR than TRIDENT AUTOCRAT and of course different mix as well as other different FX stuff… Why I mention this? Well, it’s highly intr versions there, much more dirty than TRIDENT AUTOCRAT and with a Tom Angelripper-like fuzz bass sound!
Your lyrics are tagged by Metal-Archives as “abstract” and “satanism”; in one of your interviews you shared a lot about your perception of death. How much of it is in Caw Entrance? Do you have to say something new regarding these topics after all these years?
I think I was theorising a lot and had more time not beeing too organized in the ’90s hehe. The lyrics on CAW ENTRANCE are reflecting on a different level. Not on a «higher more enlightnened» level, but perhaps more enlightened by life experience at least… I am not in the need of sharing and analyzing openly about CAW ENTRANCE, but at least I think I’ve accomplished making something outstanding. All the main theory of the Triad of the past is still relevant, only that now I move, not only on, I guess I still move dirty old black metal with strong psych!
I don’t try to «carry on the torch» of this or that era, but I have true heartfelt love for old school sound production and feeling. And I use that love to create straight outta the soul, including depth, aggressions, paradox, groove, evil, stronghold, melancholy, and more… The sole lyric CAW ENTRANCE (not the current album), as you shall see later on, is actually a lyric about the, of course supernatural, ability to create «the freeze of death», to go beyond, and then go back… (hahaha heard that story in a book somewhere?).
How do you see a power which drives you to write Furze music? Is it art for art’s sake? Is it some primordial energies you channel this way?
As you see from the previous answer I’m living my life to the extent I can. I know that the thoughts, the reflections, the misanthopy, the reality I’m breathing till I die… it’s full of surprises, dull repetitions, attractions, and rejections… I try to hold my heart and create amidst all the chaos, it’s what I love doing. It’s based on different directions from within but I’ve never released stuff I don’t truly feel is FURZE at the point it’s been released. I try to bind together everything till it feels like «FURZE» you know. And I tend to feel proud about all the material I’ve written over the years. It’s important to me that I really feel this materialized energy within when songs are beeing made because that’s what all the magic is all about.
I guess it’s a medicine and a poison at the same time. I just can’t live without creating BLACK PSYCH METAL. OH HOLY FUCK! Fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BLACK PSYCH FUCKIN’ METAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You call your music “Black Psych Metal” — how does this definition manifest itself in Caw Entrance?
Wow, that’s a pretty good question! HOW that happens I don’t know. It’s leading its way from a devotion that’s been going strong for decades now up to this point. The ravens have a symbolic meaning in ancient tradition and in a way I feel it connects a «stronger base» to older FURZE lyrics as well as shooting into the future as well. As for the present world around us… there’s a very increased chance of WW3 which could mean total destruction. Only a few triggers going wrong and the bomb can grow into autocrat response systems in short time, then there will be none.
Thoughts like these are also food for BLACK METAL. It’s a very «survival of the no-bodies»-system in its utter function. Very holy actually. It’s kinda mysterious to think about the fact that your beeing going around experiencing itself, with its nervous system… it can in very brief time be toasted… the moist, the blood, the brain lying inside the skull… it’s like, sudden new soup export, you know?
The Presence (2018) was released physically only on vinyl, while Caw Entrance and, for example, Baphomet Wade (2015), were also released on CDs. Are you still a dedicated worshipper of analogue sound, or did you change your approach to Furze’s recordings?
I always change the way I record songs, always a little modification for each song actually. I wish I was even stronger at the tech base but I’m getting more and more self-educated. Still updating the analogue yeps… And some gear must be exchanged because it’s too old, like some drum stuff which I’ve had since the late ’90s etc. I guess it’s easier to get new gear if you have a sponsor. FURZE never had any sponsor, for gear, recordings, videos, or anything else.
I felt it was correct to include the THE PRESENCE… album together with BLACK PSYCH TORMENTOR unto CD format when the time for that miniLP was due. I heard stories like people burning CDRs from a THE PRESENCE… vinyl rip to listen to etc. That’s no point, it’s better to have a real CD format. But when I did THE PRESENCE… it was a self-release completely so I chose to focus on vinyl as the first edition. But all FURZE albums (except for releases like old demos/unreleased tracks with non-studio quality) will and shall always be out on LP/CD/TAPE. DEVOTED ART PROPAGANDA shall see to that!
What are your plans for Furze for the rest of 2024?
There will be no nun’fun metal run! As said, DAP and FURZE digging unto more teamwork. It’s MUCH more sense beeing on a small label and to be respected and hailed rather than be on a large label and basically rejected, believe me. More than ever, stay Furzed! Actually, staying «Furzed» means you’re staying alert to yourself, and your surroundings, at least that’s what it means to me. You never know what’s commin’ around the bend… just like BLACK PSYCH METAL!
FUCKING BLACK BEAST PSYCH METAL POWERS MAN AAAAAAARRRGGHHHHH! LISTEN AND FEEL THE BLACK PSYCH POWERS; HAIL SATHANAS! IN PARALELL WORLD; BLACK SABBATH’S DARKEST BLOSSOM WHICH NEVER HAPPENED , COMES THE BLACK PSYCH KREATOR!
(«……………oh’oh’oh Miss So, tell me, will Putin put-in the booooomb???» )
https://furze.bandcamp.com/album/caw-entrance
https://www.facebook.com/Furzebook