It might be time to slow down but Burial Choir have actually worked quite quickly following up last album ‘The Eucharist Of Martyrs’ in less than a year. It arrives here at the perfect time, it’s cold and a period for hibernation and reflection. But that’s nothing compared to the frozen home that this came from, Finland where temperatures can plummet well into the minus figures and they actually get real snow rather than a pathetic dusting which turns straight to muddy slush. So too is Finland renowned for making slow, ponderous funeral doom, they excel at it and you hardly need a list of players who have perfected the sound over the years. Here we have a duo comprising of Mikko Lehto also of Atmospheric black folksters October Falls along with Mika Havumäki ex Slowrun.

We are taken via stained glass windows into a cathedral of suffering via three tracks or Cantos as they are described here. The first couple run at a full quarter of an hour, the third slightly shorter. After bells toll and atmosphere is set up the overriding fashion is slow and solemn. There is a real medieval feel as the music begins to seep in via the string arrangements. It’s quite pastoral but any feelings of lambs grazing peacefully in lush meadows are quickly torn asunder by an anguished vocal roar. We are then left to settle into the ponderous mainframe, in unhurried and languid fashion as the doom descends. Biblically “divine grace” may well be mentioned but the thick vocal growls which are thankfully recounted in the CD booklet make it quite clear that “the final judgement is to suffer” and that the image of ‘their lord” is “grotesque.” Luckily, we were not seeking redemption here. Slow it may well be but the repetitive nature of the melody here is both fairly simple as well as compulsive. You have no problems losing yourself in it along with the harried grasp of the vocal roars. A vision of suffering may well come to the listener, classic monasterial artwork weeping tears of blood. But perhaps that is just me.

There’s not a huge differentiation between the three parts here. Canto III.II does not suddenly lighten the mood but continues with the despair. Those not familiar with the genre may well want to flagellate themselves with barbed hooks to escape the suffering, those more versed will be comfortably numbed by it all. There is no real middle ground. One is left to luxuriate and prostrate themselves to the long imposing passages here whilst perhaps confronting their own mortality and the inevitable nothingness that awaits us all. Ah yes, it is bleak but it is honest too. Strangely 7 minutes or so into the second part a melody that is reminiscent of a certain Italian horror film seeps in, but perhaps that is co-incidental and just me too. It also seems like a good place to leave this for those who want to seek it out and discover themselves. Further disillusion and descension can be found at the following links.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/burialchoir

https://fallentemple.bandcamp.com/album/descension-of-firmament