Doom Metal

[Diesel 11]

Diesel's Descent into Funeral Doom, Part II


Funeral - Tragedies (1995)

Tracklist:
1. Taarene 12:25
2. Under Ebony Shades 13:32
3. Demise 8:43
4. When Nightfall Clasps 14:20
5. Moment in Black 9:39

I'm quite intrigued by the premise here. This album helped pioneer the genre of funeral doom, but unlike most of their peers, incorporated female vocals into their mix. I'm quite excited to hear how that works! Also the first track is sung in their native Norwegian (and the rest in English), so that should be fun.

• The album opens with a nice acoustic piece that almost feels disjointed from the rest of the song. It sets the scene quite well, dipping into doomier territory while retaining a scene of piece, thus setting the scene quite well.
• The vocal mixing on this album is a bit strange. They're a lot higher in the mix than I'd expect and slightly panned to the left side. This isn't a critique so much as an observation.
• The guitars here are very doomy, very mournful, and IMO sound better than Thergothon's. Really moody and I like it.
• The female vocalist sounds really interesting. She's got a very light voice that fits the music quite well. The Norwegian makes it quite an interesting experience. The music overall definitely feels Scandinavian, but not inherently so.
• There's a male vocalist here too, who utilizes growls. He's also high in the mix, and could've been a bit lower IMO, but it's okay because he's actually pretty good. Much better than the Thergothon person.
• Interesting hearing a guitar solo in a funeral doom song! It's nice though, and it works.
• The female singer gets some great, great stand-out moments on the second song, "Under Ebony Shades". Really, really lovely voice.
• There just seems to be more going on here than I expected from a genre like this, and certainly than I expected from a pioneer. Dirgy riff, mournful solos, peaceful acoustics, and two singers that bring to life the imagery the band is trying to get across really well.
• When she sings in English, the accent definitely comes out, but it's just so nice and peaceful that it adds to the overall flavor. I almost don't even want to write, just listen and take in the experience. Always a good sign.
• Woah! The growler ripped us right back into metal after an acoustic piece in "Under Ebony Shades" with a really guttural croon. That was fucking awesome.
• Unlike Thergothon, these guys know how to end their songs well. They take them to their finales and then fade out lightly and it works really well. No gripes from me.
• Jesus Christ, there's a moment in "Demise" where the guttural vocals seem to sweep back and forth backed by some sort of wind and it's really fucking cool. These guys know how to spice up the music, man. This is great.
• ...well, mostly great. "Demise" has some melodies in its second half that don't really connect with me. Almost too much like folky children songs, is the vibe I'm picking up.
• "When Nightfall Clasps" starts really slowly and building up from the darkness. When the female vocals come in they actually sound like another instrument. Cool way to mix them in here. Sounds awesome.
• Unlike Stream from the Heavens, Tragedies's longest song is well worth the extended runtime. "When Nightfall Clasps" is a contender for the best song on the record and a great showcase of the band's knack for crafting moody pieces that remain interesting and capture both your attention and imagination for the duration of the runtime. Really nice.
• "Moment in Black" opens with ambient noises that sound almost like a form of percussion, but I can't really tell what it actually is. Sounds great though.
• Great finale to the album. "Moment in Black" wraps things up really well. The only issue is that for once the fade-out doesn't really work. A full stop would've been better.
• The music 100% fits the album cover. Very autumnal, mystical, and moody.
• If there's an overall weakness, I think the acoustic pieces could've been worked in a bit better. On occasion I wished they'd keep dirging with the electrical instead of swapping instruments, but that's a very minor thing in the context of the record as whole.

Overall: Wow! Now that's a fucking great record! Not without its flaws - "Demise" started great but dipped in quality part-way through. And as stated above, the acoustics could've been handled better. But that's it. Everything else about this album is genuinely great. I love the female singer, she's so nice and hypnotic and gets to shine throughout to varying degrees. The harsh vocalist has a strong grip on his voice and really helps build that atmosphere. The guitars are great and the fact that they're given pieces the solo on top of is awesome. Just an overall, great album, well-rounded, I think it slayed.
Highlights: If I have to pick two, I'd probably go with "Under Ebony Shades" and "When Nightfall Clasps". Tough though, because "Taarene" and "Moment in Black" are both awesome songs as well.

Next time: Weatherbirdships.

 

[Diesel 11]

Diesel's Descent into Funeral Doom, Part III


Skepticism - Stormcrowfleet (1995)

Tracklist:
1. Sign of a Storm 10:13
2. Pouring 8:48
3. By Silent Wings 7:06
4. The Rising of the Flames 11:31
5. The Gallant Crow 7:39
6. The Everdarkgreen 12:15

Skepticism seems to be held in a lot of the same regard in the funeral doom genre as Thergothon, only these guys are still around today. Another Finnish band, so let's see if they build upon their predecessors. I'm fairly excited for it overall!

• There's a remix of this record from 2018 that I considered playing, but in the end I went with the original. The sound is absolutely cavernous. The synths seem to be as loud as the guitars, the vocals are in the back, and the drums very prominent. I've been to Luray Caverns here in Virginia before. This is exactly the kind of music I'd expect to hear playing from it.
• The first thing that strikes me beyond the sound mix is that this doesn't feel sluggish at all. It's slow, there's no doubt about that, but it never seems to get lethargic. Just a steady march forward.
• The synths are getting a lot of breathing room here. Seems like they have more time in the spotlight than the guitars!
• The outro of "Sign of a Storm" is so quiet that it convinces you several times that the song is coming to an end before it actually does. I'm surprised though, the song didn't feel its ten minutes at all.
• So there's a bit of a difference between cavernous and sounding like the music was recorded in a fucking cave. Because it literally sounds like they're in an earthen room with a bunch of stalagmites and stalactites surrounding them, and amps and speakers playing at max volume, and someone outsideof the cave is recording the noise that manages to make it back from the underground. I really can't tell if I like it or not. It's a really interesting aesthetic but it makes it slightly more difficult to listen too.
  • Luckily the music is pretty gripping. Like I said, this isn't sluggish at all which surprises me a lot.
• The vocalist is fairly good. Not as good as the harsh vocalist from Funeral, but better than the Thergothon guy. The issue is that because the mix shoves him in the back behind all the music, it doesn't give him any stand-out opportunities. But on the plus side! - it manages to fit the music as a bit of a mood-bringer. There are also some moments where the vocals get multi-tracked, so that brings him out a bit better.
• The synths in "Pouring" seem to be playing straight organ. Kind of interesting.
• "Pouring" ended way too suddenly for my liking. Like, "Okay cut it there and launch directly into the next song!"
• Speaking of the next song, "By Silent Wings" opens with a bit of a black metal vibe, given the guitar's distortion mixed with the rather poor production. Not bad though. More organ synths too.
• Man, we had a little organ interlude and then ERUPTED back into the dirgy cavernous metal. That was pretty cool.
• Probably ironic because of the black metal vibes from the guitars, but "By Silent Wings" really starts to sound like a church's worship service at parts. A more hellish service though maybe...
• Some of the melodies in "The Rising of the Flames" remind me of a more mainstream kind of song. Can't tell if I mean mainstream in the sense of pop, rock, metal, or churchy contexts though.
  • This may or may not be related to that, but I started checking the time to see how long it would be before the song ended. Not a good sign.
  • Also, the outro was the most memorable part of the song. Nice...?
• As if the synths didn't have enough to do already, in "The Gallant Crow" they seem to be working overtime at outdoing the guitar. Not a complaint, just an observation. It actually sounds fairly decent.
  • I don't know what it is with these Finnish bands and their debut albums, but I am once again getting Angels Fall First vibes.
• The outro to "Crow" is acoustic and the background is filled with a hum that kind of really hits home the weird as hell way they recorded this album. Although this time I think it's really intentional.
• "The Everdarkgreen" opens with more churchy organs. At this point I'm kind of tired of them but hopefully they're worked more interestingly here. This is the longest track on the album, and I'm hoping the length is justified.
  • The song starts to pick up about a third of the way through. My comment about sluggishness didn't exactly last through the past couple of songs and I'm glad it's picking up again.
  • There's a slower piece that's quite cool. Sounds like a bunch of badly-mixed birds are flying atop it.
  • Now the synths are giving me U2 vibes ala "Where the Streets Have No Name". Bruh... please.
• Interestingly, "The Everdarkgreen" ends earlier than I expected and then we enter a short piece that seems to be the intro to "Sign of a Storm" again. That's pretty cool.
• Does it fit the album cover? Yeah, Definitely dark and lower-quality (but the latter comment I don't mean in a negative way).

Overall: The biggest issue with this album is also its most interesting feature - the mix. It sounds like it was recorded deep underground, but that also hurts the music at times. "The Rising of the Flames" and "The Gallant Crow" are also kind of boring, and "By Silent Wings" and "The Everdarkgreen" are somewhat mixed bags. As an overall album experience I'd say it's a bit better than Thergothon, but it really doesn't hold a candle to Funeral's Tragedies. Might be interesting to listen to the 2018 remix, but I don't know that I'd be too interested in doing that at any time soon.
Highlights: "Sign of the Storm", "Pouring".

Next time: A call of the wretched sea...

 

[Diesel 11]

Diesel's Descent into Funeral Doom, Part IV


Slow - V - Oceans (2017)

Tracklist:
1. Aurorae 10:14
2. Ténèbres 10:14
3. Déluge 13:33
4. Néant 10:32
5. Mort 10:40

I'm fast-forwarding from the early days of funeral doom, to a much more recent release that caught my interest. Slow is a Belgium band that's really a solo outfit for a guy called Déhá, and I could not pass up the opportunity to spin his fifth record. More nautik funeral doom! Also, I know I really should've done with for 'Part V' instead of 'Part VI', but I don't care.

• The intro is pretty ambient and filled with melancholy. There's a sense of building atmosphere that I'm liking. At the two minute mark we finally get some signs of life from an undistorted electric guitar, and then the metal kicks in with a crash of distortion and a growl. Yet the beauty of the intro is still there in the background.
• Déhá's growls remind me of a mixture between the powerful thunder of Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth, and the cavernous abyss of Daniel Droste. He's really good.
• The music doesn't feel like it ever really changes much, but it's not sluggish at all. The pacing is pretty great. And the rising and building background of distortionless guitars is awesome.
• Oh fuck, the songs segue together with a piano piece. Spoken word too, how ominous!
• The weight and the despair in this guy's voice is just astounding. I barely have anything to say. I just want to drift along with the music and feel the might of the ocean close around me.
• The atmosphere seems to get more intense with each passing song. In "Déluge" there are some haunting, ghostly wails that back the growls and really take things to an even doomier level.
• Man the guitars make for an amazing wall of sound. Exactly what you want from an album like this.
• Slow also like to play around with the boundaries of funeral doom. "Déluge" breaks out into blast beats in its last fourth, before falling back into the surf and succumbing to the trudge of the waves again.
• Synths are also present on this album. They really make the atmosphere go up that much further. At the end of "Néant" they sound like an oceanic choir.
• The wails return even stronger in "Mort". This time they're straight-up shrieks that remind me of that Animal Planet docufiction Mermaids: The Body Found. Excellently fits into the vibes here.
• One of my favorite things about this album is the fact that all the tracks segue together so they act like one huge unit, one fifty-five minute entity of a song. It's so cool. Even though the record rarely changes course, just sticking with calm interludes and slow, trudging, ever-building epic doom metal with growls and shrieks a top that, it never gets boring. That's the sign of true musical talent.
• And the album closes with the ambient synths backing a slow piano outro that gently drifts off into the horizon. Epic, man, epic.

Overall: That was the best of the four funeral doom albums I've done so far in this project, even topping Funeral. Just one big monstrous movement that feels as deep and powerful as the ocean, speckled with bits of calm among the surf. A really awesome nautical experience.
Highlights: I mean how am I supposed to choose? The whole thing is excellent.

Next time: A titanic offering, but only 1/3 of it is funeral doom...

 

[Diesel 11]

Diesel's Descent into Funeral Doom, Part V


Swallow the Sun - Songs from the North I, II & III (2015)

Tracklist:

I. Gloom​

1. With You Came the Whole of the World's Tears 9:01
2. 10 Silver Bullets 7:11
3. Rooms and Shadows 7:19
4. Heartstrings Shattering 7:46
5. Silhouettes 5:55
6. The Memory of Light 6:17
7. Lost & Catatonic 7:06
8. From Happiness to Dust 8:39

II. Beauty​

1. The Womb of Winter 3:35
2. The Heart of a Cold White Land 4:47
3. Away 5:22
4. Pray for the Winds to Come 5:28
5. Songs From the North 5:16
6. 66°50'N, 28°40'E 6:42
7. Autumn Fire 5:46
8. Before the Summer Dies 5:37

III. Despair​

1. The Gathering of Black Moths 12:57
2. 7 Hours Late 10:02
3. Empires of Loneliness 11:01
4. Abandoned by the Light 8:48
5. The Clouds Prepare for Battle 9:05

@Night Prowler has raved about this album before (it's the whole reason this thread got started!), and @JudasMyGuide recommended it to me nearly four years ago. The band don't quite fit with the definition of the genre at hand, but Volume III is their attempt at making a funeral doom record, so fuck it, I'm gonna finally listen to it. All of it. It seems daunting, but at the same time, I'm rather excited.

​

Songs from the North I ("Gloom")

• The opening track didn't feel its nine minutes. I'm not gonna lie and say I loved it, but it kept my attention. Good sense of melodies that almost bordered on pop / alt at times. Loved the St. Peter spoken word bits.
• The issue: I'm not digging this vocalist. I can't tell if that's due to mixing or just him himself, but it's the weakest link. Not because he's using harsh vocals, but I just don't vibe with his. The clean vocals are a little better but I don't really care for them much either. There are good moments for both though. It may be something that grows on me, whether as the album continues or if I listen to it more.
• The riff in "10 Silver Bullets" is fucking nice.
  • So is the chorus, but it kinda grows on you.
• The guitar solo outro in "Rooms and Shadows" is lit.
• All these spoken word pieces remind me of Schaffer's in Iced Earth. If you can't tell if that's a compliment or a criticism, well neither can I.
  • And on further thought, the clean vocals kinda remind me of Tobias Forge from Ghost.
• Aleah Stanbridge's vocals on "Heartstrings Shattering" are easily the best on this album so far. I'm a little sad that's it's her only performance on this record. I read about her passing and it's quite moving. RIP.
• There's a lot of power in "Silhouettes". I like the music backing the chorus, big choir type thing going on. It also gives me a lot of Opeth vibes.
• Liking the female vocals in "The Memory of Light". I wish there were way more on here than there are, though.
• "Lost & Catatonic" has the best chorus of the album so far. I really liked it. The music and the melody behind it sounded great, and the vocals atop were really well-executed.
• Intro to "From Happiness to Dust" sounds like a really gloomy ABBA. That's a compliment.
• The ending of Part I was quite final. Will be interesting to see how the other two flow together with it. Or perhaps it's supposed to sound like three different albums assembled as one package? We'll see...

​

Songs from the North II ("Beauty")

• Man I'm fucking loving this piano intro. Sounds amazing. Like being either in a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean, or deep in the woods, cloaked with the winter chill and possibly some snow too. Lovely build up throughout and as a whole this instrumental is fucking awesome.
• FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS! No but seriously, I love when bands use bells as an extra instrument, and Swallow the Sun already did that in Part I and now "The Heart of a Cold White Land" is really using it to its full advantage.
• The vocalist sounds great here. I think his talent really shines when he's able to contain himself and allow his voice to help shape the music, and let the music shape him. And the instruments here are so fucking cool. Man, this is fucking great.
• Lovely atmosphere and melodies in the chorus of "Pray for the Winds to Come".
• Nice to hear some Finnish in "Songs From the North". I will go to my grave saying that it is the most beautiful and musical language. Not as big a fan of this woman though, but she does a good job.
• The intro counting in "Autumn Fire" is pretty 'fire', ngl.
• Lovely outro in "Before the Summer Dies". Not a whole lot to say about Part II, it's consistently nice and peaceful but doesn't quite grip me beyond the first two tracks on. I really liked it overall though.

​

Songs from the North III ("Despair")

• And now it's time for the funeral doom part of the album. The opening was pretty cool but the shrieky vocals... not so much. I think the vocalist sounds a bit better trying to go ultra deep though.
• I like the little deviations from the 'main path' throughout. The bells return! It's pretty bombastic funeral doom overall. Good first song for sure. I never knew that moths could be so sinister.
• I really liked the slow, trudging "7 Hours Late". Really good funeral doom music. The vocalist... was fine. Again, not my favorite guy, but it's what it is.
• Pretty good narration from Nathan Ellis in "Empire of Loneliness". Definitely adds to the overall vibes (bombast in mourning).
• "Abandoned by the Light" really tries to bring in the black metal influence in the form of shrieks (I guess it makes sense, if you're abandoned by the light you must be falling into the black) and it works, but at the same time... I don't really listen to funeral doom to hear black metal, lol.
• The vocalist sounds especially meh on "The Clouds Prepare for Battle". But I liked the interlude chanting, to the tune of what I recognize to be "O Come O Come Emmanuel".
• And we end this titanic release with the sound of the northern winds.

____________
Overall: For a two and a half hour trek into the northern wilderness, this was actually pretty good. It definitely kept the attention throughout. I didn't think the vocalist was terrific, and I'd have liked more female vocals than what was present, but at the same time, I didn't not like this album. Were I to return to one section in particular it'd most likely Part II, but the other volumes were of about equal quality. One thing I thought while listening was that the experience could've been just as good if not better if the volumes were reversed. There's a real sense of finality in "From Happiness to Dust" that we don't really get in "The Clouds Prepare for Battle". But overall, it was good, not mindblowing, but good.
Highlights: Part I - "10 Silver Bullets", "Lost & Catatonic". Part II - "The Womb of Winter", "The Heart of a Cold White Land". Part III - "The Gathering of Black Moths", "7 Hours Late".

Next time: The third of poetry.

 

[Forostar]

Dear doom metal lovers, may I recommend this beautiful album by veterans Celestial Season. It came out last year after a long silence (the band was very active in the nineties). The Secret Teachings has great atmosphere and lots of beautiful, sad melodies. Please, have a try:

 

[Diesel 11]

Paging the death-doom fans: @JudasMyGuide @Forostar @Perun @Night Prowler

Have y'all listened to Disembowelment? They're an Australian band who were one of the pioneers of death-doom and paved the way for funeral doom. Only released one album, Transcendence into the Peripheral, but it's a classic. Great blend of death metal speed and doom metal atmosphere. I'm certainly curious to hear what others think of them because there's often not a lot being done musically but the atmosphere is really good.