Having taken a step deeper within their cavernous realm of horrors and fallen into the disemboguement between a new, even more miserable stretch of their own personal lethe Finnish atmospheric black metal duo FLAIL apply machine-tortured hum to the ‘ready dismal of moan of their fixation on this second full-length album. ‘Within the Firths of Futility‘ flows downward as an underground river naturally would, slowly and coldly carving its path in stone as it takes the ear deeper into an unreal realm away from resistance. Slow-agonizing gloom illustrated by minimal elemental guidance and set forth from broken speakers the aura generated here is inadvisable, rawly pressed through unconventional means and in torturous extended waves enough to send the general public fleeing. The ritual is yet substantial and not only for its curiously stated sound design but the lingering, irregular step of their travels.

Flail formed as a duo circa 2018 directed by S.P. aka Ivczz as a side project alongside Lvkkkn who was briefly the bassist Ivczz‘ long-running black metal band Ruho. While none of the artists work is outright traditional I would suggest that the circle of Joensuu-area bands related to is inherently experimental, not weird for the sake of weird but searching for a unique and raw sound achieved with minimal orchestration. The original duo is responsible for most all of the material released to date from formation through 2022 or so starting with a rehearsal demo tape (‘Rehearsal MMXVIII‘, 2018) which is largely an incoherent noise jam feeling its way through two extended pieces which seem to be honing in on both intentional and incidental points of harmonization with a notable absence of guitar tones beyond the bass. This is the basis for their surrealistic, doomed and “maximally lo-fi” atmospheric sound and the cacophony available to distended home recordings. The two 7″ releases which followed introduced some layered guitar tones (‘ᚠ​ᛚ​ᚨ​ᛁ​ᛚ‘, 2019) and found some footing in shambling, zombified doom-tones (‘Distant Wanderings‘, 2020) and began to better illustrate the intent and inspiration for this type of atmospheric black-doomed esoterica. While those releases are not a hundred percent necessary to study closely today they do show their work in terms of where ‘Within the Firths of Futility‘ and its sound design parsed its origins.

By 2020 it made sense to point to anything from Wolftower‘s lo-fi scuff all the way to revered maniac groups like Barathrum and Ride For Revenge for reference as the raw, bass guitar driven, surrealistic and doomed sound of Flail slowly gained sentience. The cavernous hell-spectrum deployed on their debut LP (‘Dying Embers to Coldening Coals‘, 2020) that same year reinforced that gut shaking feeling with an ungainly, horrified atmosphere all its own. I’d given short review of it upon release suggesting the album was “a fine example of modern black metal’s penchant for unique atmospheric design, obscurant instrumentation, and quite long pieces driven by glitched-out depressive and atmospheric black metal variation… rather than songwriting.” and while that might seem like a dig I felt like it sets the expectation that this niche realm finds its voice in deep-set spaces, all of its impact being available within the noisome scald of their work, which I’d felt had some level of noise collage and lo-fi black metal application of depressive black metal dreariness (a la Candelabrum.) This ends up applying directly to the similar mood of ‘Within the Firths of Futility‘ but with some profound enough change to their sound as this time around Lvkkkn has been replaced by drummer EvM (Celestial Grave, Fervent) who also provided the cover artwork for this and the previous album.

The slow-droning abysm Flail‘d arrived upon per their first album is generally replicated here in terms of a slightly overdriven bass guitar and minimally mic’d drum kit spiral downward in steady drip-paced movement. This time around we find the pacing changes more often, finds more than one steady pulse per song and generally allows room for the synth/keyboard use to carry in a greater variety of moods. “Into Celestial Abyss” bashes between points of slow ‘Filosofem‘-esque listlessness and faux choirs raining down upon burnt speaker scuff. The mix is overcrowded, occluded in terms of its mix and the broken drowsiness one should know Flail for is fully there this time around. Though the mood is satisfyingly delirious I’d found this opener more performative than expected, especially considering the direction provided by the ethereal ceiling level synth.

For all of the dramatic suggestion available to the opener “A Sonorous Vigor” is probably more characteristically in the mode expected of Flail with its hypnotized, overbaked beat and nearly stoney bassline weaving about but there is obviously something gained within these howl-filled halls be it experience or a different level of collaboration because the two performers feel entirely locked into this intensely repetitive piece in particular. The pairing of this song with the opener essentially serves as a template for what Side B will produce with one extended exploratory song and another shorter, more potent fixation. Upon returning to this album for probably far too many repeated listens I’d found the main fixation was the droning quality of their gig, the busted drum sound and cavern lit noxiousness of their work feeling somewhat uniquely atmospheric and just organic enough in its process that it doesn’t fully feel like a straight up bedroom black metal experience. Otherwise I’d generally connected more with the depressive intensity of the second half a bit more.

It doesn’t get any deeper than that per my own experience as I don’t have access to the lyrics and such. I’d found each of the four songs here successfully conveyed their venomous and depressive vibe, built upon their greater cadence, and used repetitious dirges to make their point in steady waves. Rather than calculate the effect of “In Perished Time” b/w “Ruins of Futility” moment-for-moment I would suggest heavier use of keyboards successfully generates intrigue in the realm of Flail and this accentuates the wrathful but affected muse of the vocals as distanced and choked personae wrapped up in the delirious fogginess of their atmosphere otherwise. The use of synth/keyboards is the main boon felt here on ‘Within the Firths of Futility‘ per my own taste and I’d enjoyed how it tonally clashed with the rawness of the other instruments but also bolstered the greater mood without introducing anything outright melodic to their range.

Needless to say this is an acquired taste where an intentionally obscured and cryptically stated deployment make it a niche item for fans of ambient, noise and depressive type black metal excess. I can’t necessarily recommend this to a general audience in high regard, but I do think there is some experiential value and curiously developed knack here which doesn’t feel like just another throwaway, low effort black metal album. Again the droning black-ethereal strides provided the main “in” for my own taste and the record slowly proved itself worth returning to thanks to its crepuscular and hypnotic yet raw-edged sound. Otherwise it is an improvement upon their previous work in most every respect hence the score being higher than expected. I’d expect far less interest from the general public and far more intensity from the niche-bound. A moderately high recommendation.

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