ALBUM REVIEW: Blanck Mass – In Ferneaux

Sacred Bones

Released: 26.02.21

One of the first of what we can assume will be a glut of lockdown albums this year, In Ferneaux (geddit?) also stands a good chance of being one of the strongest. In crafting an anxious, doom-laden mirror to the times, Benjamin John Power also subverts the Blanck Mass formula considerably.

Over two side-spanning tracks, Power wields his usual doomsday maximalism with a far lighter touch than usual, with tense found sound and queasy new age arpeggiation occupying as much space as the neon-hued synths of Blanck Mass albums prior. Phase I offers an early soaring high that collapses into mounting dread, but it’s the visceral, all-consuming distortion of Phase II’s aggressive, noise-driven mosaic that lives up to the title.