Farer Premiere “Phanes” Video; Monad out Nov. 20
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 4th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
About a year after announcing their name change from Menhir to Farer, the Dutch post-metallic noise trio will make their full-length debut Nov. 20 with Monad on Tartarus Records and Aesthetic Death Records. And for those who have followed them from that past incarnation to the new one, I’ll just note that we’re a long way away from “Mt. Aloha,” though even that song and video held a component of social commentary. Monad might too in its four-track/52-minute run, but one certainly would have to dig deeper in order to find it through the assault of sometimes caustic noise. Taking cues from vocally from the most biting moments of The Body and incorporating a bit of ritualism from European post-metal touchstones Amenra in the chants of the subsequen “Asulon” (14:19), “Phanes” opens Monad at 13:07 with as much crush of atmosphere as tone, duly bleak and draining.
The two songs together, “Phanes” and “Asulon” comprise a punishing side A, and while there’s some measure of letup within the tracks as Farer weave into and out of ambient stretches, even these are 
tense ahead of the explosion to come, an air of cerebral violence worked into the material that’s brutal in concept and patient in execution. To complement, “Moros” (12:10) and “Elpis” (13:04) flesh out their own blends of the harsh and sublime. In “Moros,” a line of keys or effects echoes horns atop a chugging low end, and as “Phanes” already brought Monad‘s “Stones From the Sky” moment — that most clarion of Neurosis riffs showing up transformed to suit Farer‘s needs — the band seems to relish in the subsequent freedom to explore beyond genre reaches. Tribal-esque drums cap “Moros” and bring the feedback-laced punishment of the first half of “Elpis,” as well as the crushing punishment of the second half — they play both kinds of music: punishing and punishing — the final march outward fading as it goes, leaving long echoes and a concluding dronescape.
It is a wonder how something with so much breadth can also feel claustrophobic, but such is anxiety and one need not look far to find it this week. “Phanes” has a formidable task in setting the tone of Monad, but in its patient sense of psychic break, there isn’t so much salvation as understanding to be had, and if you’ve ever felt like the bad voice is chasing you around the room, you already know that understanding has cathartic value.
PR wire info follows the video below.
Please enjoy:
Farer, “Phanes” official video premiere
The video for Phanes is a sprawling tryptic; A moving abstract brutalist painting showing corruption, atrophy and passing. It showcases an intricate relationship between creation and destruction, in which unnatural parasitic structures come into the inevitable collision with the sublunary.
Shots by Farer
Editing Arjan van Dalen
Special thanks to Dianne and Thijs
Shot at landartworks ‘RIFF, PD#18245’ & ‘Deltawerk’ , Flevoland / NL, and in nature reserve ‘Peazemerlannen’ , Friesland / NL
Dutch doom/noise trio Farer create an imposing discord of severe, caustic bass textures, harrowing vocals and winding drums. The band, featuring members of Ortega, was originally founded as MENHIR in 2013, but chose Farer as their new moniker mid 2019, after spending two and a half years of writing and recording their debut record Monad. By taking time to further explore the possibilities of being a band with two bass players and the absence of a guitar, the record exhibits the bands evolution into a new entity thoroughly. Meaning, carefully crafted, drawn-out, oppressive and compelling songs.
Out of nothing, nothing becomes.
Farer is:
Frank de Boer – Bass/Vocals
Arjan van Dalen – Bass/Vocals
Sven Jurgens – Drums/Percussion
