[Cover Art by Daniel Karlsson]
Februus is a one-man project driven by the prodigious and still developing talents of Sweden’s Andreas Karlsson. His latest, Construction of Conflict, delivers 40 minutes of guitar-centric death metal that, despite being packed to the gills with compelling and competently performed riffs, never quite coheres into a consistently enjoyable album.
I think Februus ought not continue as a solo project.
Sometimes, when I can’t quite put my finger on what’s falling short about a given album, I’ll pump my LR peers for their thoughts.
From the mighty Danhammer, “it has this sorta uncanny feeling like the main guy can’t help but … ‘think in guitar.’”
And from the sui generis Seth Buttnam, “I think duder needs to work with other people.”
It’s a solid “yes” to both observations, from me.
To my great shame, I have long attempted to walk the path of a guitarsman. Spending countless hours (when I had them at my disposal) laying down riffs into a digital audio workstation, then layering programmed drum tracks beneath them, gradually iterating on riffs and refining drum tracks until the song feels “done.” There’s a purity to this kind of work, but what it screams for is disruption. Not necessarily a better idea, just a second one. Somebody to say, “what if we threw a time change in here?” Or … “This riff at 2:40 of ‘Genocide By Default’ just kind of … ends. Maybe we need to work up a transition.”
I’m sure you’ve caught one of the countless retellings of how Lars Ulrich nudged Kirk Hammett into rewriting the “Enter Sandman” riff so that we’d hear “the first part three times then the last part at the end.”
Ulrich’s input was awkward, inarticulate, musicologically inept, and ultimately so correct that Metallica are now so rich they deal in rare art and ride horses avocationally.
What I’m saying here is that Karlsson doesn’t even need to introduce more talent into Februus; he just needs another brain to disrupt and redirect a vision that, quite often, is too pure for its own good.
It’s Time to Get Stupider or Smarter
Construction of Conflict lacks not for tricky little riffs that roll right off the fingers, but it often feels like there’s just too many. A track like “Measure of Escalation” bombards you with them, never quite asserting a melodic theme that might encourage the listener to truly sink their teeth in. By my ears, there are two paths out of this predicament.
Option 1: Pare down the riff menu by half, draw the tempos back by about 20 bpm, and really lay that shit in. As of today, Februus is a kinda-sorta but not quite proggy and melodic death metal band that never truly excels at either category. Could a significantly simpler approach help Februus’ stronger riffs soar? I don’t think it would hurt.
But I prefer …
Option 2: Karlsson becomes who he truly is; 2026’s heir to the great and powerful Dan Swanö. This is the harder path, because it calls upon Karlsson to integrate some currently non-extant elements into his game. Let’s write some catchy rockers à la “Black Tears” or “Uncreation.” You know what I’m talking about? Two to three rib-sticking riffs assembled in verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus fashion with an honest-to-goodness vocal hook thrown in for good measure. Construction of Conflict has all the raw materials to pull off that kind of thing; the work of Februus’ third album will be working that stuff into the stuff of songs.
Februus might, in fact, find its true destiny in the realm of black metal.
While Karlsson’s dominant riffing style most reminds me of the aforementioned Swanö, there’s a secondary mode on display here that hints at a surprising inspiration: Vindsval of Blut aus Nord.
Check out how Karlsson drills down into a simple but sublimely melodic, relatively minor guitar lead midway through “The First Limb is Cut.” If it doesn’t transport you to the very same icy climbs Vindsval first evoked in Memoria Vetusta II then I really think you’re not listening closely enough.
We get more of the melodic good stuff at about :40 of “The Misery That Awaits the World” and 2:45 of “Fueled by Narcissism.” Presently, these moments are subservient to Karlsson’s proficient but less impressive death-metal riff-o-ramas, confined to often poorly telegraphed interludes. I see a much more fruitful future for Februus if he starts leading with his stronger foot.
Wow, that is a lot of not-so-kind thoughts about a really well-done album.
Yes, well, that’s true. But that’s because Februus is actually good and has the potential to be even better. If this album truly sucked, I’d just dash off a message to the Last Rites mucky mucks with some nonsense about how my kid has an earache and dog has diarrhea and anyway I just don’t really have much to say about this Februus album, so if somebody can string together 12 words about a grindcore album for tomorrow morning, that would be huge. But Construction of Conflict deserves to be heard and responded to, much more than thousands upon thousands of metal albums that get released every year. I don’t really know if I charted the proper trajectory for this project, but I’m sincerely hopeful Karlsson finds a way to transform his seemingly endless array of good ideas into a handful of memorable songs.
