UMUR "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" is the second full-length studio album by Norwegian black/avant-garde metal act Fleurety. The album was released through Supernal Music in 2000. It´s the successor to "Min tid skal komme" from 1995, although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the 1999 "Last-minute Lies" EP. Fleurety consists of the duo of Alexander Nordgaren (guitars), Svein Egil Hatlevik (drums, synths, vocals), but in addition to the core duo "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" also features a host of prolific guest appearances from artists like Maniac (Mayhem, Gravetemple, Sinsaenum, Tormentor), Garm (Ulver, Borknagar, Arcturus), Einar Sjursø (Virus, Infernö), and Hellhammer (Mayhem, Shining, Arcturus, The Kovenant), among others.

"Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" opens with "Exterminators" and right off the bat it´s audible that Fleurety have completely changed since the black metal days of "Min tid skal komme". If you´re familiar with the musical direction of the "Last-minute Lies" EP, the avant-garde metal style of "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" probably won´t come as a surprise, but if you come to "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" directly from listening to "Min tid skal komme" and expect that "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" will sound anything like the debut album you will as a minimum be very surprised and in some instances (depending on your tastes and open mindedness) very disappointed by the highly experimental and ever changing avant-garde metal style of "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs".

The vocals vary between semi-jazzy female clean vocals, male clean vocals (of many different types), and more aggressive snarling male vocals. In that respect Fleurety have brought back a few of the extreme metal elements they had otherwise left behind on "Last-minute Lies", but other than a few heavy riffs and punchy rhythms here and there and the aggressive raw vocals, there isn´t much here which reveals that only 5 years before Fleurety were a black metal playing unit. It´s fellow contemporary countrymen Ulver, Atrox, and to a lesser extent Manes that Fleurety have something in common with. The bass, guitars, drums, and vocals are complimented by programmed drums and effects, keyboards, and saxophone, making "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" quite the interesting affair in terms of instrumentation.

"Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" features a decent quality production job, but the distorted guitars at times sound a bit powerless. I´m not sure they are meant to be massive and heavy, but it would have been nice with a bit more punch and power when the music occasionally features heavy riffs. Heavy riffs aren´t the dominant musical element of the album though. That´s instead dissonant lead- and (dis)harmony themes, odd jazzy interludes, and all sorts of other weirdness and abrupt musical shifts. To my ears most tracks have a musical red thread, but there are moments where the avant-garde nature of the compositions almost overpower the songwriting and become weird for the sake of it. Upon conclusion "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" is a bold sophomore studio album from Fleurety. They certainly don´t cater to their original fanbase with this one, but I respect that this ws their musical statement at that point in their career. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Last-Minute Lies" is an EP released in 1999 through Supernal Music by Norwegian experimental/avant garde metal (formerly black metal) act Fleurety. Fleurety´s debut album "Min Tid Skal Komme (1995)" was a strong semi-progressive black metal album that I enjoyed greatly and I felt that the band had been through a rapid and positive development in style since their quite disastrous demo "Black Snow (1993)" and the "A Darker Shade Of Evil (1994)" EP. The release of "Last-Minute Lies" comes a whole four years after the release of "Min Tid Skal Komme" and again the band´s music has evolved into something totally different than what they presented on their last release.

Gone are the extreme black metal vocals from the debut album which should help make this EP interesting for people who don´t appreciate extreme vocals but enjoy experimental/avant garde metal. It´s actually not audible on this EP that Fleurety was once a black metal band. Instead of the extreme male vocals on previous releases by the band we´re treated to some jazzy female vocals on this EP (and a few male monotone singing/ talking type vocals too). A rather strange but definitely succcesful addition to the sound. The songs are generally not as complex in structure as the songs on "Min Tid Skal Komme" but they are still very intriguing. The atmosphere is dark and sombre and the addition of occasional saxophone really brings much to the atmosphere too. It´s hard to make comparisons to any other artists as this is very original music but a band like Virus (mostly in the way the guitar sounds) comes to mind a few times. The rythms in the music are quite enjoyable too and deserves a mention.

The musicianship is excellent. All instruments are played by Alexander Nordgaren and S. E. Hatlevik excluding the saxophone and the female singing which are delivered by Mari Solberg (saxophone), Karianne Horn (vocals on "Facets" and "I Saw Claws") and Ayna B. Johansen (vocals on "Vortex").

The production is excellent. A very suiting sound for the music.

"Last-Minute Lies" is quite an excellent EP by Fleurety and as the playing time is 20:18 minutes there is also plenty of quantity for the money. A deserved 4 star rating and a big recommendation to those who are interesting in listening to a very original approach to experimental/ avant garde metal without extreme vocals.

UMUR "Min Tid Skal Komme" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal act Fleurety. The band released a demo called "Black Snow" in 1993 and an EP in 1994 called "A Darker Shade Of Evil". It´s safe to say that my interest in the band wasn´t too ecstatic after listening to those two releases so therefore it was a great surprise when I put this album on for the first time.

The style of music is still black metal but lots of melodic elements are now a part of the sound. Beautiful acoustic guitar parts, female singing and a generally great dark atmosphere makes this album an excellent listening experience. One of the things I enjoy greatly on the album is the rather adventurous structure of the songs. The riffs are not very complex but there are quite a few of them in each song. Somehow Fleurety manages to maintain a great flow in the songs though and every song is cohesive and memorable despite the rather large amount of parts in each song. The songs vary in pace from slow to mid to fast and the change in pace helps keep the songs interesting. The use of keyboards on the album is generally very tasteful. This is not symphonic black metal. The keyboard parts that do occur are great for the atmosphere on the album. In addition to the atmospheric female vocal parts there are also some tortured black metal rasps (fortunately Fleurety have dropped the annoying high pitched squeals that mared the demo and on the EP). There are only five songs on the album but three of them are about 10 minute long tracks and the total playing time is 44:45 minutes. The album was re-issued in 2003 with the "A Darker Shade Of Evil" EP and the extra track "Absence".

The musicianship is good and the production is powerful and suits the music well.

I´ll lay it flat out here. I´m very impressed by the development that has taken place with this band over such a short period of time. Fleurety have gone from being a very amateurish and badly produced black metal act to being a very interesting semi-progressive ditto in one year and While I´ve debated with myself wether or not to give a 4 star rating or only a big 3.5 star rating I simply enjoy myself too much not to give a 4. Fans of semi-progressive atmospheric black metal should take a listen here. I was reminded of a band like Agalloch more than one time during the album´s playing time so fans of that band should probably consider checking out this album as well. A highly recommendable album.

UMUR "A Darker Shade of Evil" is an EP release by Norwegian black metal act Fleurety. There´s been a lineup change since the release of the 1993 "Black Snow" demo as bassist Per Amund Solberg has left the band. The consequence is that Fleurety is a two man band on "A Darker Shade of Evil" consisting of Alexander Nordgaren on guitar, bass and vocals and Svein Egil Hatlevik on keyboards and drums.

Like the "Black Snow" demo this EP consists of three tracks where the second song is a short instrumental interlude between two noisy and simple black metal tracks. "Profanations Beneath the Bleeding Stars" from the demo is also featured on "A Darker Shade of Evil" while the other two tracks on the EP are new. Fleurety continues the very distinct black metal style they initiated on the "Black Snow" demo . The music is not very original or exciting to my ears and it´s definitely the high pitched and weird vocals that give the music its identity. The rest is rather generic.

The musicianship is unpolished and raw. I´m not impressed but the band members are probably very young at this point so it´s excusable to some extent.

The sound quality is really bad. Very raw and unpolished lo-fi sound quality.

"A Darker Shade of Evil" is not a release that pleases me much. Bad sound quality, simple/ primitive compositions, below average musicianship and some of the most annoying high pitched vocals I´ve ever heard mean that I can´t give this EP anything else but a 1 star rating. In addition to the mentioned weaknesses all tracks are also available on the 2003 re-issue of Fleurety´s debut album "Min Tid Skal Komme (1995)" which makes the purchase of this EP even less attractive unless you are a hardcore collector.

UMUR "Black Snow" is the debut demo by Norwegian black metal act Fleurety. The demo was released in 1993.

The music is very primitive black metal with some very distinct sounding vocals. The high pitched squeals by Alexander Nordgaren is surely an aquired taste and if you ask me they are quite the challenge. The demo features three tracks where "Descent Into Darkness" and "Profanations Beneath the Bleeding Stars" are black metal songs while "Mortuus Est Dei Filius" is a short song with acoustic guitars. A kind of bridge between the two heavy tracks. The pace is generally slower than on most black metal releases.

The musicianship is imature and the sound production is very lo-fi and noisy.

"Black Snow" put Fleurety on the map but it´s not a very succesful release to my ears. The songwriting is imature, the sound production barely listenable and the distinct sounding vocals are honestly quite the turn off. I seldom rate anything with 1 star but this is too amateurish to receive a higher rating.