Review Summary: Evoken puts the "funeral" in "funeral-doom" with their latest soundtrack to your death.
I once did a review of The Cure's Pornography where I stated that it was possibly the most depressing album in popular music history. That assertion, arguably, still stands, but what about the most depressing album in underground music history? Now THAT'S a different story, because in the underground there is next to no expectations to be accepted by the public, much less to sell enough records to move out of your mom's apartment, so you have the liberation to make any kind of music that you damn well please, no matter how much it could, in this case, seemingly create clinical depression in the listener. And if there's one way to earn yourself an anti-depressant prescription, it would probably be by giving this album a few listens and then going to see a psychiatrist.
So, how goddamned depressing can this album, Evoken's 5th, possibly be? First of all, check out the name of the sub-genre this band fits into. FUNERAL-DOOM. Seems a little ominous and foreboding doesn't it? It is. Like other hyphenated metal sub-genres like "death-grind" and "power-violence", "funeral-doom" earns its name for it's sonic ability to slowly close all the shutters around you and drag you into the depths of hopelessness, death, and the feeling that all is, well, doomed as the genre implies. When done by amateurs, funeral-doom can be a pedestrian plod of boredom and unconvincing attempts at conveying truly dark emotional content. When done right, funeral-doom is the sonic equivalent to your final moments on this putrid, wretched earth, all drawn out over several ten-plus minute tracks in a row, and listening to Atra Mors creates that effect and then some. Their music makes you visualize your last moments in the worst possible circumstances; like being laid up in a hospital bed suffering from multiple organ failure when all of a sudden your heart can't handle it anymore and you go into cardiac arrest and die without saying goodbye to anyone in your family. Then you go to hell. Evoken imparts that level of dread.
When it comes to the specifics of the music on this thing, the keyboard textures sprinkled throughout are greatly appreciated. That way, the album is more than just a huge wall of drop-b guitar sludge assaulting your eardrums while imparting no nuance or dynamics whatsoever. There's even a whole track on here ("A Tenebrous Vision") that is an entire feature for the instrument, and it sounds absolutely creepy even for music in this niche. Adding on to that, there are many moments of chorus-saturated clean guitar melodies that absolutely sparkle, albeit in their own macabre way. But the one thing that makes this album stand out to me in the biggest way is the fact that Evoken does something that many doom bands absolutely refuse to do: they open the shutters, just a little bit. Just listen to the soaring, nearly uplifting guitar melodies on "Decent Into Chaotic Dream", it's beautiful. But these moments don't necessarily bring you towards the light. In this case, you see the light clearly, but keeping with the funeral-doom theme, you're slowly being dragged away from it, but you're too drained of energy to fight it. All of this equates to a truly cathartic listen; music so dark that it helps you meet, come to terms, and purge yourself of negative emotions almost entirely. Either that or you will become an entirely darker being after being exposed to such apalling levels of darkness. Oh, and did I mention that this album is pretty heavy? The low, guttural growling vocal delivery paired with grimy, sludge-caked guitars creates a listening experience that matches the horror of an H.P. Lovecraft story.
At the end of the day (or night in this case) there is at least one funeral-doom album that tops this in terms of overall nuances and sonic variety (check out Mournful Congregation's The Monad of Creation) but Atra Mors gets the edge for it's sheer, nearly unrelenting brutality and heaviness and raw emotion. It is a painting of abject human misery and all the pain that it entails. At this point, you're probably thinking to yourself "So...why the *** would you listen to it?" And the answer is: the darkness and slow-burning heaviness is actually calming, and even therapeutic. If you let it get to you - and you're not easily scared - it might help you out in the same way.
