UMUR "Festering Fairytales" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish thrash metal act Protected Illusion. The album was released through Real Illusion in July 1990, and it follows the release of the October 1989 "Swimming in the Moonlight" EP. Protected Illusion followed a DIY approach throughout their career (1988-1995) and set up the Real Illusion label (and the Öpstone label) to release their own music, so while "Festering Fairytales" is a label release, it´s still an independent label release.

The material from the album has been included on the 2008 "1989-1991: Watching the Wake" compilation album (Marquee Records) which compiles the material from Protected Illusion´s second demo (the "Opulence and Preservation...Poverty and Desperation..." demo), their two EPs and the material from this album.

"Festering Fairytales" continues the raw, fast-paced, and aggressive thrash metal style of the January 1989 "Opulence and Preservation...Poverty and Desperation..." demo and the "Swimming in the Moonlight" EP. The album even shares "Decadence" and "Greetings from Hell" from the former and the "Plain Pain" track which the latter, which all appear here in re-recorded versions. While the core of the band´s sound is intact, Protected Illusion have increased the techncial playing and the occurence of experimental musical ideas, and "Festering Fairytales" is quite the eclectic thrash metal release. The caustic aggression of Sadus meets the experimental songwriting of Voivod isn´t the worst description of the music found on "Festering Fairytales", although Protected Illusion aren´t quite as experimental as the latter mentioned act.

The album features eight tracks and a total playing time of 23:31, which makes it only marginally longer than the EP which precedes it, but quality always trumphs quantity, and although "Festering Fairytales" features a raw and relatively thin sounding production job, which most people probably won´t recognise as professional production values, it´s still a quality album release loaded with great fast-paced technical playing, caustic aggression (including screaming rabid dog snarling), and some pretty intriguing and relatively varied songwriting. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.