Fear Falls Burning: Disorder Of Roots
Tonefloat

All good things eventually come to an end, it seems, and recording projects and aliases are no different. And so it is that we now have before us Dirk Serries' concluding statement as Fear Falls Burning, with Disorder of Roots providing one more sampling of the trademark slow-burning guitar drones that he's issued under the name since 2004. Serries isn't retiring, however, but presumably will focus his attention henceforth on the still-active Microphonics project.

The first half of the fifteen-minute opening piece, “The Roots Rebellion,” encapsulates the Fear Falls Burning style in its mournful electric guitar pulsations before drummer Tim Bertilsson and bassist Frank Kimenai turn the piece into a trio-based workout from the halfway mark onward. The move perpetuates the move into a fuller group sound that was documented on 2008's Frenzy of the Absolute, where Serries built upon his core sound by bringing guitarist Johannes Persson, percussionist Dave Vanderplas, and drummers Bertilsson and Magnus Lindberg aboard.

Bertilsson and Kimenai likewise appear on “Virtue of the Vicious” and on “Chorus of Dissolution,” in each case providing lumbering foundations against which Serries spreads thick, molten washes of fuzz-toned ripples and corrosive drones; don't be surprised if images of burned bodies dragging themselves across scorched earth come to mind. My least favourite piece of the album's four is the closing one, “I Provoke Disorder,” simply because it features the presence of Michiel Eikenaar, who sings with the kind of gravelly growl that's sometimes heard roaring at the center of a death metal band. Subtract that detail, however, and the track unfolds in a manner similar to the album's other three, if at a slightly slower crawl. Regardless, the album certainly works well enough as a summative statement of the Fear Falls Burning project in providing an overview of its style. Disorder of Roots has been made available in a limited-edition (200 copies) vinyl format (two clear ten-inch discs accompanied by a CD copy of the album) and as a CD.

April 2012