Farer are a doom band from the Netherlands and this is their debut album.
Monad is a harrowing and uncomfortable 53 minutes that’s made up of components from doom, noise, drone, sludge, and post-metal. The bass is used prominently and well, as you’d expect from a band with two bass players. Each of the bassists also performs vocals, and we get a few different versions of these spread out over the record.
Farer’s music is well-built and relatively diverse, with its central sound diversified in ways that suits its core apocalyptic mission statement. The songs demonstrate a wide-range of scope within their self-crafted framework, drawing in a variety of influences and creative ideas from the genres and styles mentioned above.
The music is oppressive and severe, and not for those uninitiated in the ways of underground doom extremity. The songs consist of abrasive waves of bleak horrors and harsh unforgiving atmospheres. Crushing riffs deal out rhythmic punishment and destructive heaviness that leaves the listener broken and damaged. However, the inherent darkness of a creation such as this is effectively juxtaposed with ominously fragile and near-ethereal moments of light and beauty. Yes, within the wider sonic harshness that Farer create there are sections that can be called beautiful, in their own ways, where the nightmarescapes give way to atmospheric worldbuilding on an impressive scale.
This is the sound of gradually-unfolding brutality and abuse, punctuated with moments of reprieve and hope. Monad is an impressive first outing for Farer, and is an album that any self-respecting doom adherent should spend some time with. Fans of bands such as Today Is the Day, The Body, Black Shape of Nexus, Nadja, Amenra, Thou, Sumac, Neurosis, Body Void, etc. absolutely need to check this out.
Wonderbox Metal 