{"id":16898,"date":"2025-08-22T20:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T20:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/16898\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T20:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T20:38:07","slug":"farseer-portals-to-cosmic-womb-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/16898\/","title":{"rendered":"Farseer – Portals To Cosmic Womb Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Growing up together in the Chicago suburb of Cary, Farseer<\/strong>\u2019s Brendan McCarthy (guitars\/vocals), Ted Ballantine (guitar), George Burrows (bass), and Kyle Curtis (drums) have been playing music together since the 8th grade. It wasn\u2019t until they returned to the Chicago area after college, the four intent on applying their years of collaboration to a single, focused project, that Farseer<\/strong> formed in 2016. Their 2019 self-titled debut constituted forty-six minutes of progressively psychedelic stoner sludge, setting a solid foundation for Farseer<\/strong> to build from. Now six years on, stalwart line-up intact, Farseer<\/strong> prepare to release their second record, Portals To Cosmic Womb. With some very Burke-ish cover art courtesy of Ryan T. Hancock, a matured, less stoner logo, and a FFO rap sheet including Mastodon<\/strong>, Opeth<\/strong>, and Elder<\/strong>, I sensed Farseer<\/strong> had ascended to a higher level of seriousness, and I was excited to hear what Portals To Cosmic Womb would birth.<\/p>\n

Culling most of the psychedelic and stoner-rock elements, Farseer<\/strong>\u2019s sound has evolved, now rooted in deathly progressive sludge and post-metallic atmospheres. Notably absent from Portals to Cosmic Womb are the meandering instrumental tracks that dominated Farseer, along with McCarthy\u2019s occasional flirtation with clean vocals. Here, he sticks solely to his powerfully effective growls, which sound like a slightly raspier Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt. McCarthy\u2019s and Ballantine\u2019s guitar heroics either ebb with crushing, Mastodon<\/strong>ically substantial riffs (\u201cThe Supreme Note of Suffering\u201d) or flow in rivulets of delicately strummed chords and gently plucked leads that build, Wayfarer<\/strong>-like (\u201cThe Abomination Renders the Poor Man Speechless\u201d) to crescendo. Creeping below these intricate melodies, captured beautifully by Brad Boatright\u2019s master, are Burrows\u2019 weighty, winding bass lines and Curtis\u2019 thunderous drums, which pound forth when riffs command, and retreat as atmospheres demand. Farseer<\/strong> guides us through the cosmic bog, a place lyrically steeped in pools of altered reality that bubble with existential dread, populated by the anxiety-inducing absurdities of societal modernity lurking within the Cthulhuian shadows.<\/p>\n

\ufeffPortals to Cosmic Womb by Farseer<\/a><\/p>\n

Portals to Cosmic Womb is dripping with highlights. Like \u201cEndless Waves of Obliteration,\u201d which, true to its namesake, undulates between massively heavy riffs intertwined with cavernously snarling vocals, a passage of driving, Gojira<\/strong>-like chugs, then on to a bass- and drum-heavy interlude laced with delicate, Eastern-tinged leads. Its chorus is still living rent-free in my head. Then there\u2019s my personal favorite, \u201cGentleman\u2019s Bookshelf,\u201d that begins with pulsating drums and propelling riffs sluiced by a deluge of glistening, post-metal tremolos before going full-on Leviathan mode for McCarthy\u2019s verse work. Then, the track plunges into an interlude fat with intricate drum fills, noodling bass lines, and subtly mournful leads, before building back in intensity to finish with Mastodon<\/strong>-like majesty. Having spent time with their debut, this Farseer<\/strong> seems well-matured, and their ability to write meaningful yet memorable songs has improved markedly, casting Portals to Cosmic Womb as a dark mistress, whose mysteries continue to unravel with subsequent spins.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As if constructed from a blueprint of Opeth<\/strong>ic design, Farseer<\/strong> crafted Portals to Cosmic Womb with a near effortless flow. It\u2019s six songs, spanning a very manageable forty minutes, find Farseer<\/strong> merging the best parts of those meandering instrumentals into rock-solid compositions that, like spring and neap tides, rise and fall with dramatic intensity. There is one ripple in the water, though, and that\u2019s the album closer \u201cThe Daneri House.\u201d While there\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with the track, I rather enjoyed the last sixty seconds\u2019 flanger modulation on the guitars, which gave the ending a spacy, almost Pink Floyd<\/strong>ian texture. It is the album\u2019s most progressive song, with its growling vocal first beginning and complex time signatures that, as the final track took me out of the experience Farseer<\/strong> had provided and would have been better placed after \u201cGentleman\u2019s Bookshelf,\u201d leaving \u201cThe Abomination Renders the Poor Man Speechless\u201d to bring the album to a resounding close.<\/p>\n

Farseer<\/strong> basting in their creative juices over the past six years has resulted in a vastly improved product, as Portals to Cosmic Womb shatters any notions of a sophomore slump. Should Farseer<\/strong> continue along the path they\u2019ve set here, I anticipate a record deal soon. With Portals to Cosmic Womb, Farseer<\/strong> now enters the pantheon of great Chicago artists as a genuine contender, and one you should definitely take note of. And while September looks to be shaping up as one of the better release months this year, Farseer<\/strong> will undoubtedly stand as one of the brighter spots in not only August, but 2025 for sure.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: 3.5\/5.0
DR<\/strong>: 6 | Format Reviewed<\/strong>: ALAC
Label<\/strong>: Self-Released
Websites<\/strong>: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide<\/strong>: August 22nd, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up together in the Chicago suburb of Cary, Farseer\u2019s Brendan McCarthy (guitars\/vocals), Ted Ballantine (guitar), George Burrows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[1135,12054,7277,7278,7281,18,117,15282,15283,19,17,13208,337,15284,15285,1141,1143,15286,15287,15288],"class_list":{"0":"post-16898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1135","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-american-metal","11":"tag-aug25","12":"tag-death-metal","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-farseer","16":"tag-gojira","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-mastodon","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-opeth","22":"tag-portals-to-cosmic-womb","23":"tag-progressive-metal","24":"tag-reviews","25":"tag-self-released","26":"tag-sludge-metal","27":"tag-wayfarer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}