Band: FURNACE
Country: Sweden
Title: Dark Vistas
Label: Soulseller Records
Year: 2020
Style: Death Metal

Review:
Not sure if 2020 was the starting year for the Swedish trio Furnace, but they have already released 2 albums last year, which would of course be surprising if we wouldn't check the band's line-up which features the exceptionally prolific Rogga Johansson. What we get here are 11 tracks of Melodic Death Metal that remind me of the '90's when (some) Death Metal bands started to incorporate Alternative Rock and Melodic Punk or Gothic Rock influences in their music and basically to distance themselves from the Death Metal core they initially chose, calling it maturity / improvement; in some cases it was an improvement, in others it wasn't and the proof for that was they either broke up soon after or just returned to their initial sound after a while. Anyway, in Furnace's case it cannot be the case of wanting to get away from Death Metal since Rogga is stuck with the "Death Metal legend" label on his forehead, and most certainly Death Metal runs through his veins. The album has a nice flow, some tracks are very catchy thanks to the melodic guitar leads that work perfectly with the metallic riffs and semi-growling vocals. At times the drum-programming sounds too synthetic and that's my only complaint with this album, but for the rest I think it's a good album that has serious potential to be on the liking of both traditional Death Metal and Melodic Death Metal fans. If you want to get straight to the core of this album I'd suggest the third track, The Calling, probably the best one on it, and if you'll like it you can explore it in detail.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10

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