Furyo land

Spinning off from the wreckage of the recently sundered UK Decay, Furyo were one of those bands that everybody encountered at one time or another, but few knew too much about. Their vinyl legacy in particular was almost criminally brief — a five-song mini-album, a three-track single, and a smattering of odds and ends gifted to sundry goth compilations (The Whip, Young Limbs and Numb Hymns, a Grim Humour fanzine cassette). Oh, and an unreleased album that, again, Grim Humour gave a brief airing to, but which hasn't been heard of since. It still hasn't, which means Furyo is something of a lost opportunity. Concentrating solely on the band's Anagram label career (that is, the nine tracks that constituted the EP and the 12"), it can offer no more than a sampling of what all the fuss was about, as Furyo were indeed worth making a song and a dance about. Combining the best of the parent band's most eclectic energies with a darkness that literally oozed from the grooves, Furyo were worth far more than the "just another goth band" tag that is normally tied around their necks. There's room for at least another CD on the shelves.