Phuture Doom- ST (2013)

Phuture Doom- ST (2013)

Honestly and without trying to sound pretentious, I predicted this a couple of years ago, and I’m really proud to say it, once I heard the darkness and solitude in those Burial grooves, I knew there was a possibly of merging dubstep beats with my cherished black metal, which definitely needs to be taken forward in order to escape becoming obsolete, of course we are not talking here about the British version of dubstep, the one more based in dance hall, but the US more muscular and physical version, which here is delivered in a brutish way along with some obscure atmospheres and the unexpected, and completely amazing black metal intensity.

Phuture Doom sounded in paper pretty exciting as the fulfillment of one of my musical fantasies at least for some limited moments make me happy, the clashing of two genres that have captivated my ears in the past years, and musically it lives up to my expectation for short periods, not for a whole record experience, we can hear it clearly in Black Acid Reign as the blast beats and the tremolo guitars fly crazy and wild rights before glitching electronics and heard dubstep beats make their apparition, an intense display of power and electronic muscle, U.S. dubstep at its best, full of fury and testosterone, some dark keyboards and weird atmospheres build up fast as we are attacked suddenly by intense blast beats and BM sonic abnormalities, not perfectly matched in the first tune, but promisingly displayed here as we are hit all of a sudden by BM maniac fury and dubstep power a charming and wild pair.

Brutal beats award us on Burn the Knowledge before the apparition again of tremolo guitars and blast beats, and then the song is lifted into the air by pure dubstep alchemy, and amazing mix this band supposedly form Detroit are able to achieve, mixing the brutal beats of the thuggish brother of British dubstep and the demonic intensity of BM, tremolo guitars seem to collide perfectly with beats and both become a lethal pairing and a feast for the most open minded listeners.

The sad news is that the chemistry of both genres is only attained in this first songs and is later put aside by the band as Doom Terror Corps sounds more like standard US dubstep, with MCs and crazy fat beats, more in touch with dance floors than with the gelid landscapes of Norway, a fact that definitely breaks the spell and sends the record nowhere, no matter how intense those dance beats may sound, I just can`t see much of the BM crossing over toward this, perhaps the intro to Exodus is obscure enough, but not to cross toward BM territory, and that keeps the record in crashing course, and right in the middle of the tune we got some really epic power, that sort of stuff people like Emperor did on their latest years, kind of symphonic, but not too menacing stuff, but at least saves the record and heads it towards more interesting territory, just to throw it all away in Han Breaks another intense but shamelessly naked dubstep tune, and don’t get me wrong, I love muscular dubstep, but I feel cheated by the promise of the very first two songs.

Phuture Doom is a hard act to follow, they demonstrate some really obscure BM like imagery, and for a couple of songs they achieve a sound that was roaming in my head, and that’s just so cool, unfortunately, the band is not able to crystalize a full record of those ideals and the BM thing ends up more like a gimmick, without enough substance to attract neither of the two genre followers and that’s perhaps the most dangerous thing of the record, it’s very obscure US dubstep yes, but I don’t see neither the dubstep crowd nor the BM crowd getting too enthusiastic about it, and titles like La Grande Messe Noire and its black mass like atmosphere promises more than it is really achieved.

Powerful dubstep lesson is the one this Phuture Doom crowd give us in this record unfortunately they only reach the sky for two or three songs, they achieve the impossible, but then it all falls apart, is a very good dubstep record, but not a unique one, like it could have been, but if you are into the experimental and risky stuff, this one may be for you.