Some time ago I visited the Cult Of Luna tour, which had Fear Falls Burning opening up for them. I was impressed by the one man ambient drone act, so I decided to have a chat with him, accidentally spill my beer in his merch bag, and receive a copy of his I’m One Of Those Monsters Numb With Grace LP, which I will now gladly review.

Just to brag, I received a gold vinyl promo copy, limited to 50, from a total of 399 pressings. I’m lucky. Fear Falls Burning is a one man project by VidnaObmana otherwise known as Dirk Serries. Dirk likes to play with vintage amps and guitars and create ambient-drone music with some industrial noises, in other words; Sunn 0))), but with its own identity. A little information for the technical freaks; he plays an Epiphone Les Paul in relation to contemporary Boss, Electro-Harmonix, Danelectro, Marshall and Line 6 effects. Sweet noise!!

 

The record features two tracks that both last little over 19 minutes and offer an intense journey through space and sound. I’ll try to describe it, but what I’m going to write here is going to be quite vague and unclear perhaps. Side a, otherwise known as the track ‘I’m One Of Those Monsters…’, is a reasonably reserved song that features a structured soundscape in which one guitar plays a ‘riff’ and another one smoothly layers it with ambient harmonies. Some other noises are added as the song progresses, building up to a spacey surrounding and then gently fading. The second song ‘…Numb With Grace’ starts out nice and easy as well, but builds up to vast extremities of industrial noise. In the end it becomes quite intense, especially when stoned this stuff gets to you. Very interesting material, this Fear Falls Burning.

 

What else can I say, drone lovers should pick this one up of course and check him out if you get the chance. I just hope I can make it to his show with Sunn 0))), otherwise known as the Roadburn Festival Afterburner, quite a prestigious event if I do say so myself.