I’m not going to lie, outside of Ahab, Bell Witch and a small selection of others my Funeral Doom knowledge on the genre is lacking, and that does make me a bit sad because every time I hear it I love it. That’s why I snapped up the chance to review the new album by Funeral seeing as they are viewed as somewhat of a pioneer of the genre. Granted their sound has from what I gather departed from their early years and indeed upon listening to some snippets from their debut Tragedies I can confirm this to be true. The band have strayed into more Gothic Metal waters with a Doom underlying still present. So with a new vocalist at the helm how do they fair in this latest Season Of Mist release Gospel Of Bones?
Too Young To Die opens the album with apt misery, orchestral, melancholic and beautiful. Gothic is truly how I would depict this opening, and it comes across as another example of if you like this band but then say you don’t like Classical then you’re lying. The insane, and I mean insane vocals of Eirik P. Krokfjord who from my mild digging is a legit actual Opera singer and it shows, deep depressing yet highly fitting vocals lay over the now Metal guitars and drums. They intermingle melody too for added sadness and Funeral Doom type apathy. Female operatic vocals soon join the fold, adding an additional layer and some much needed variation and depth. There is something a little lacking in this song (and album) though and that is progression, I feel like I could do with more leaning into the hard hitting Funeral Doom or even Doom element, there seldom seems to be any sort of pay off, and whilst the sound is strong it could go even harder. Yestertear continues with much of the same, blinding vocals, crushing (yet slightly bland) riffs, somewhat generic orchestral elements but some good hooks nonetheless. It’s much the same as its predecessor in its seeming lack of progression but it’s still pretty decent. If nothing else I like this album for just how unique it is. You often hear bands such as Nightwish, Epica, Xandria and so on with an emphasis on Classical sounding operatic female vocals but to hear a male vocal at the forefront is certainly a step in a different direction. Procession Of Misery comes in with a big epic marriage of instrumental elements before tailing off into pretty much more of the same. Honestly a good way to define this is it’s quite a bad record to just sit and review but it’s a great album (or sound) to either witness live or listen to in the background, and as I’ve said before I’ll always defend background music because let’s be honest 99% of the time that’s what music is whether you listen whilst driving, cooking, gaming whatever music is generally unless live a background thing. These Rusty Nails finally assures me that this isn’t really going anywhere, it’s just one long, slow, sad Gothic journey and you know that is pretty awesome but despite its unique sounding nature it’s naturally going to get a bit dull after a while.
Ailo’s Lullaby at least offers some reprieve, a chance for the violin to really shine on its own instead of it being used as a sort of backing tool. This little instrumental certainly has its place to break things up, and whilst it is laced with a degree of unhappiness it’s not overbearing or dragging, at points I would even call it bright. My Own Grave however sees us back into the Doom Metal Opera fold, it’s another strong song but the lack of variation throughout lends it to be just another addition to the album, because let’s be honest this really isn’t a singular song experience, this is a full album deal. Once again I like it, but I like it a lot less when I’m just sitting and listening, if I was to listen to this on a Friday night whilst gaming and having a beer however I’d be a lot more into it. I realise that I’m not really selling Funeral here and I want to emphasise that it is actually good just in the right context. To Break All Hearts Of Men at least shakes up the vocals, possibly a different vocalist and that’s also quite welcome, it adds a greater depth to the release and somewhat reignites the album a bit. Continuing to keep things fresh is Når Kisten Senkes, some top notch guitars in this song, it all just feels a bit more Metal here and I love it, probably the best song on the album I’d say. The final song Three Dead Men doesn’t exactly scream big epic closer like you might expect but then again the whole album is full of such displays. The mixture of vocal styles is at least apt and in some ways I prefer these vocals to the Opera stylings, it’s clean but still quite Doom laden, I wish there was a bit more of it throughout to be honest. A pretty Metal performance all round in this final push and it pays off for sure.
So as I’ve said sitting and listening is not the one with an album so depressing, well I mean it’s not like it has actually made me sad or anything but it has left me a bit drained. It’s a bit like being around a person that just sucks the life out of a room, a social vampire if you will. Yet you could argue that that is exactly the point, without the misery what is Doom? It should be heavy, hard going, slogging and grim that’s literally the whole point. What I’m getting at is don’t grab this record, slap it on and just sit there in deep thought unless you enjoy feeling like a wrung out flannel by the end of it. I really have to praise the band on their sound though because it is quite honestly like nothing else I’ve heard, especially such vocals in Metal, well at least not to this extent. I’m honestly conflicted about how to define this so I guess I’ll have to end with the old adage of listen for yourself and see what you think, any album that gets me typing this much must have something to it good or bad right?
(7/10 George Caley)
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