Monday 8 December 2014

Funeral Doom Metal

The mesmerizing world of Funeral Doom Metal!

Funeral Doom Metal GIF

 

 

Funeral doom is a branch of Doom Metal that crosses Death / Doom with funeral dirge music drenched in a thick,rich atmosphere.
Played to a more slowed down tempo, and places an emphasis on evoking a sense of emptiness, despair and somberness.

We can picture Doom Metal as a building with three levels.First floor must be the Traditional Doom Metal or the so called Heavy Doom Metal,the second one is Death Doom / Gothic Metal and the third is surely Funeral Doom Metal.

This amazing world of Funeral Doom,full of dreamlike atmosphere,unbearable sorrow, slowed down tempo,venomous melancholy,
heavily distorted guitars and dark ambient soundscapes is the new expression of true and non-commercial barricade of metal.

The final frontier in doing Doom at the most extreme peaks of despair played at a such level of slowliness that for an unaware/untrained listener sounds more like ambiental meets metal music.


A true story of human condition dwelling in a society full of falsity and lies.A genre where misanthropy and total fall into personal agony remains the only alternative to reflect our tragic pass through this world.

It couldn't be drawn a line to mark the start of this genre,but in the mid '90s Doom / Death Metal bands like Esoteric, Mournful Congregation,Skepticism,Thergothon or Disembowelment were taken this genre to another level adding more atmosphere,even more crushing take-overs and an obvious introspective touch to their musical approach.

First inceptions of this new Metal expression must be Esoteric's 1994 - "Epistemological Despondency" a debut album that builds
slowly and surely a crushing Psychedelic Doom Death experience,a total nihilistic and misanthropic symphony supported even in the booklet notes just to make it clear.

At the same year Thergothon's lovecraftian inspired album "Stream From The Heavens" resets the standards of heaviness for this genre by taking Doom / Death Metal
at their highest (or lowest) dimensions.A true beginning for this inaccessible-metal if you like.
Skepricism's  "Stormcrowfleet" released in 1995 bring us to an interesting voyage through a quite atmospheric and almost ambiental work.
If you look from the classical Doom Death perspective this one is much an avantgardistic attempt.
Also Disembowelment from Australia tries to create an unique feeling and indeed an outstanding album through "Transcendence Into The Peripheral" originally issued in 1993.
Automatically reaching cult status as fans worldwide acclaimed it is an over-the-top extreme and one of the most renewing albums in the Doom / Death Metal scene.Lately, Evoken will explore and develop some of the musical ideas presented on this album.
With these albums the black branches of this new Metal's genre tree started to spread across continents,increasing genre's underground popularity.

The most stand out Funeral Doom acts are Esoteric (United Kingdom) , Mournful Congregation (Australia) , Evoken , Hierophant and Catacombs (United States) , Monolithe , Funeralium (France) , Funeral (Norway) , The Funeral Orchestra (Sweden) , Corrupted (Japan) , Skepticism (Finland) Thergothon (Finland) , Shape Of Despair (Finland) , Colosseum (Finland) , Wormphlegm (Finland) , Pantheist (Belgium) , 1000 Funerals (Iran) , Ahab and Worship (Germany).

As highlights and the most recommended albums for this genre we can consider on: 1994 Thergothon's "Stream From The Heavens" ; 1998 Skepticism's "Lead and Aether" ;
2004 Esoteric's "Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum"; 2005 Mournful Congregation's "The Monad Of Creation"; 2006 Ahab's "The Call Of The Wretched Sea";
2005 Evoken's "Antithesis Of Light" ; 2000 Shape Of Despair's "Shades Of..."; 2007 Colosseum's "Chapter 1: Delirium"; 2007 Worship's "Dooom"
2007 ; Depressed Mode's "Ghosts Of Devotion" or 2006 Catacombs's "In The Depths Of R'lyeh".

Juhani Palomäki (guitar/vocals) leader of Colosseum passed away in 2010 (R.I.P. to this great musician).

VIDEOGRAPHY:

 
COLOSSEUM-Towards The Infinite(Music video)

Depressed Mode - Words of Silence

Skepticism: Calla (Official Music Video)

Skepticism: Swan and The Raven (Official Music Video)

Just to cheer up the atmosphere a little bit, we have the band Et Moriemur here about how to properly play Funeral Doom : 

https://fb.watch/ch7wgSHqgg/