Get Lost In The Brutal Magic Of Faminehill’s Intense Metalcore Debut Album

Faminehill’s debut album Ascend grips the listener with an epic descent through tormenting emotion that could both serve as a mirror for the weary and a look at someone else’s particularly despondent fall. The Hungarian band play a quite brutal but dynamic form of metalcore, constantly thrashing with pounding riffs, crushing breakdowns, and strikingly effective musical connective tissue, and at the same time, never losing their attention to nuanced emotional detail. Faminehill don’t just hit the listener with an avalanche of sound — they immerse them in cascades swirling with the musical expression of multipronged anger directed at formerly close loved ones who’ve compacted you down — and perhaps most defeating, at yourself for your role in the process. The band hit real high and memorable points when they use the sheer force of their music to build up listeners just to kick them back down off a cliff overlooking emotional mayhem.

Mostly, they’re rather straightforward, but the band define their music with an alluring clarity that broadens the scope of their impact. They sound like at least at some point, they determined precisely what they were aiming for and leaped for it, holding nothing back. There’s not really a hint of uncertainty in elements ranging from the direct song structures to the utter brutality they employ on plenty of occasions and even the confidence with which they employ delicate elements to their songs.

Importantly, they bring that space for contemplation of the disaster together with the disaster itself to craft an encompassing experience that can easily be appreciated and enjoyed on a number of levels. On the one hand, Faminehill’s particular blend of brutality and emotion feels primed and ready for the corners of the music community most fond of getting together and melting down at intense shows, and on top of that element, the music is well-crafted to sit with and ease into a confrontation of the negative effects of loss in your own life. Even through the mind-bending intensity, Faminehill’s Ascend maintains a clear attention to detail that makes it a perfect album to just lose yourself in — even if only for its runtime.

5/5 Stars

Check out singles below. The full album is available April 5 via Famined Records.

A more emotional track:

And more intense: