Review Summary: Walking the best path to Doom, six feet under…
Funeral doom is described as a doom metal sub-genre that is slower, heavier, and uses ambient influences than normal doom metal. Put that of what funeral doom stands for and add beautiful dark melodies and you have
Funeral. This is
Funeral’s third full length album, a four year gap since their last album In Fields Of Pestilent Grief.
Funeral uses depressing lyrics, with beautiful but dark melodies that make you as the listener feel sorrow, with fear of death at the same time. The band:
Frode Forsmo - Vocals, bass, lyrics
Erlend E. Nybø - Guitars
Mats Lerberg - Guitars, backing vocals
Anders Eek - Drums
I haven’t heard too much from other funeral doom metal bands but the ones that I have checked out they seem to have a rougher production, much like Funeral’s pervious albums. This album seems to a more clear and cleaner approach to production, to accommodate the beautiful melodies that they incorporate in most of their songs in From These Wounds. If you’re a fan of this band before, you will notice one major difference in the line up from their last effort. There is no female vocalist in this album, which really makes this album sound like another band. The new vocalist has a deeper, depressing style almost reflecting
Katatonia’s, days when they were doom, but with a more bass vocalist sound to it. It fits perfectly with words of depression like: “As we marvel at our death, I would wane within your art, as you would become me, like ashes circling the pyre” were they are soft yet depressing. In the same song of
This Barren Skin, he uses a deeper darker vocals singing “In their wake we are born dying, voicing insignificance..” to portray anger and frustrations.
The band playing behind Frode, are the two guitarist that really know how to bring the sorrow like feeling during the softer part of the songs. Their melodies is what makes their vocalist sound so perfect for this album. Erlend brings the cleaner, and softer lead guitar sound to make the beautiful melodies that drive the songs. Mats deeper, heavier, darker guitar sound, often being dominating during the anger parts of Frode lyrics, brings almost a rhythm section to their songs. Both are very talented at creating the atmosphere changes when needed. The best song that describes when they are at their best is titled track,
From These Wounds. In which they go from a dominating heavy sound to, mellow parts with perfect execution, that go right along with Frode’s lyrics. The drummer is probably the least talented, or dominating factor in this album. He does go well with the music playing, but you hardly see him showing any really dominate factor in the songs. The only part in which I think he plays a huge role in is some of the heavier parts he helps the bassist bring that heavy doomy sound.
What makes this band be so good in my opinion is the creative and well written songs that really feel like a person struggling with death. The violin, and keyboard arrangements are perfectly placed in the right spots. They don’t feel forced, but like they should belong in the songs. The most remarkable part of this album is the blend of the transition from softer melodic parts, to the heavy doom ridden parts. All the songs seem to be based on a struggle between two different feelings, despair and anger. Which means the songs will almost like a person having a serious problem of being bi-polar. The anger parts are followed by the softer parts, and the same vise versa. This might be formulaic but it really works well with what the album is all about.
Funeral’s latest effort is really a masterpiece in my opinion. The album is a breath of fresh air for me, because its really the only funeral doom metal band that I could find that can be so depressing, slow, and heavy without using the scratchy production. Its also an album that has unbelievable melodies with great songwriting to incorporate those melodies, and to have that full effect in going well with the heavier parts of the songs. Overall, this is a must buy, or listen for any funeral doom fan, or just a doom fan. If I were going to die, I would want to be buried with this album as my theme song while they bury me.
Recommended Tracks:
This Barren Skin
From These Wounds
Vagrant God
