Hailing from the small island country of Puerto Rico comes Falgar an expression of a longing for a time that’s been long forgotten. Reaching back into his Spaniard European roots, the sole member behind Falgar started with humble raw black metal with a depressive stint to it, sporting a raw and harsh sound that slowly became more and more ambient over time, to now, with the latest release Ante el signo del águila (Before the sign of the eagle in English), which is a completely acoustic and ambient album, a far cry from the first album.
With a slow and somber acoustic melody greeting you with this album its clear to see the direction that this release holds. Slow Gregorian style chants are littered all through out this album, with lyrical contents of almost the same style. Touching upon the beauty of nature, God, love, the longing of the past. There’s a lot there that makes sense when listening to this album. Even for those who don’t know Spanish, it just simply makes sense given the style and approach that the music at hand has. There are also some added synths that add a healthy layer of texture and ambience to the faint and soft guitars that, I kinda wish were more prominent on many of the tracks. Speaking of, there are a lot of tracks on this album. Twelve in total and only one of them being just over four and a half minutes, with many sitting around the 2-3 minute mark. Now, normally I don’t think that matters to much, but seeing as how this album is structured sonically, makes me wish that certain songs were combined as certain melodies played off each other, but don’t particularly do anything when they’re just a stand alone track. For example, the second track, Valle del ardor and the fourth track Más allá, could easily have been combined and made into an interesting ambient track, but they’re split with the third track La vida oculta being in the middle of the two. Its a little jarring with having to short tracks in-between the second longest song on the album that doesn’t even feel like a fully finished thought of a song. A lot of repeating guitar melodies are gonna be found on the longer tracks, and nothing to sort of build on top of of it. It feels like a lot of atmosphere and style, but not much substance or meat on the bones of the track its self. This is found all through out the album and is a little disappointing.
This album and Falgar as a whole reminds me of Burzum’s later years. Shedding the old black metal garb for a more ‘grounded’ sort of historic approach of presenting their proud European heritage that is unique and modern and a little bit whimsical. I like a lot of the atmosphere and themes surrounding the album and the aesthetic of it all, but much like Burzum, it feels very authentic to the artist and true to themselves, it just doesn’t hit the same way the early black metal works did. While his guitar work all through out this album and previous are beautiful, well performed, and hit that rustic medieval Spaniard feeling very well, its just a little bit boring when its that same melody on repeat for two sometimes three minutes straight with some breathy Gregorian singing over it. Even previous Falgar ambient releases I think hit a little bit better and sometimes capture a sense of adventure and wonder and of course longing for the past, but this one just feels a little lost. Like a collection of tracks that just long for the past and nothing more.
All in all, I found this album to be lukewarm and lackluster at best. Certainly not the highlight of Falgar’s lengthy discography, but there are some shining moments here and there and plenty of catchy melodies that will indeed get you humming and fantasizing about frolicking through ancient yet familiar woods of yore. Definitely dive into this if you’re a fan of truly ambient works that go beyond just synthetic soundscapes and delve into more grounded sounds and instruments. I will be keeping an eye on Falgar in the future, but as of now, I think I’ll be moving on to other things.