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France's Furia for sure have some untapped fury just waiting for the right ears to here, offering up its sophomore release Un Lac de Larmes et de Sang… (A Lake of Tears and Blood...), an unstable hybrid of various metal related sounds with a raging progressiveness and epic song writing. For the most part a symphonic and melodic black metal sound seems dominant, but there is also some grueling inhuman death growls, deep deep down tuned crunching, female vocals and choir chants, and some hair raising clean guitar leads, breaks and solos. I can respect a band that can go from sounding like Cradle of Filth (not vocally though, so throw away that inhibition) to Tristania and back again, and can make the transition smooth and make sense. This is just loud and heavy enough, but not without a sensitive side.

A fairly large portion of the guitar work is blatantly Swedish influenced, but it is used tastefully with a creative flair that that scene has been lacking for quite some time.

13 songs may seem a bit much for a release along these lines, but the song lengths are varied enough to even it out at a healthy and tolerable 46 minutes, and with most of the songs there's plenty you'll miss on the first go so this is one you'll come back to for several listens, and by then you'll be hooked.

This band has really made a good impression on me, something very few acts do these days, as in I'm not going to forget this disc the second I start listening to something else. I'll definitely be looking into grabbing a copy of the band's debut and would recommend Un Lac de Larmes et de Sang… without question to a wide variety of metal fans because there really is something for everyone here.