This is simply beyond any sort of extreme musicality I have heard for a
very long time. This small gem of decadent filth can be most accurately
described as funeral doom of the most sickest and torturous kind.
Unlike fellow funeral doomsters Shape of Despair, Until Death Overtakes Me and Funerary Dirge which aim to project a sense of beauty through minimalistic musical soundscapes; this French band does everything it can to diminish any sort of emotional relief throughout the three looong tracks. It's like swimming under a frozen lake without being able to get your head out for air, always feeling that there is an end to this imposing thick layer of ice overhanging you when there never is..
Now the demo! Firstly, the vocals are freaking outstanding and they come as some sort of a natural necessity for this kind of music and basically vary between brutal and sick and a torturous high-pitched scream which slowly metamorphosises into a screeching sort of weep. Musically riffage on this French release is simply of the most monotonous and minimalistic. This is not essentially something bad though since its this droning effect that keeps the listener at some sort of trance state. The intro track "Welcome into the asylum" is comprised almost entirely of a recurring riff-like distorted guitar feedback accompanied with a continuous torturous scream. Indeed this can act as some sort of an appeasement for a tormented soul..
Following is "Transcendance #26", vocals are mostly brutal and slow with intermediate high-pitched screams which at points become lets say alarming. Tempo hardly varies keeping at the same monotonous pace throughout the three tracks of the demo.
Finally the ending track musically hardly distinguishes from the previous track with the dragging elements being ever so present once again except at the final 2 minutes of the song where the tempo is quickened and differentiates from the rest of the track.
This 3-track masterpiece of Funeralium's nauseating funeral doom is an ode to the legacy that bands like Therogothon, Winter and Grief left and it surely does rank right up there with Hierophant, Wormphlegm and Reclusiam in terms of pure audial sickness.
Unlike fellow funeral doomsters Shape of Despair, Until Death Overtakes Me and Funerary Dirge which aim to project a sense of beauty through minimalistic musical soundscapes; this French band does everything it can to diminish any sort of emotional relief throughout the three looong tracks. It's like swimming under a frozen lake without being able to get your head out for air, always feeling that there is an end to this imposing thick layer of ice overhanging you when there never is..
Now the demo! Firstly, the vocals are freaking outstanding and they come as some sort of a natural necessity for this kind of music and basically vary between brutal and sick and a torturous high-pitched scream which slowly metamorphosises into a screeching sort of weep. Musically riffage on this French release is simply of the most monotonous and minimalistic. This is not essentially something bad though since its this droning effect that keeps the listener at some sort of trance state. The intro track "Welcome into the asylum" is comprised almost entirely of a recurring riff-like distorted guitar feedback accompanied with a continuous torturous scream. Indeed this can act as some sort of an appeasement for a tormented soul..
Following is "Transcendance #26", vocals are mostly brutal and slow with intermediate high-pitched screams which at points become lets say alarming. Tempo hardly varies keeping at the same monotonous pace throughout the three tracks of the demo.
Finally the ending track musically hardly distinguishes from the previous track with the dragging elements being ever so present once again except at the final 2 minutes of the song where the tempo is quickened and differentiates from the rest of the track.
This 3-track masterpiece of Funeralium's nauseating funeral doom is an ode to the legacy that bands like Therogothon, Winter and Grief left and it surely does rank right up there with Hierophant, Wormphlegm and Reclusiam in terms of pure audial sickness.
(written for Metal Archives - 23rd December 2004)
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