“Like so many things doomy, Hamferð doesn’t move quickly. Back in ’18, these Faroese doomsters—fronted by my golden voiced arch-nemesis and all around begrudging ‘friend o’ the blog’ Jón Aldará—released their second album Támsins likam.” I heaped love and adoration upon it and them. And given my history of fickle tastes that shift like the wind, one can only assume that I hate the followup, right?
“People call funeral doom boring, and I get it. It’s very slow, often very long, not particularly technical, and contains few riffs per minute. Its compositions are not ordinarily gym-friendly, or headbangable. But good funeral doom is good. Crushing, transportive, and at times incredibly beautiful, as the low, slow and leaden is partnered with rising, floaty, ethereal melodies. Think Shape of Despair, Clouds, Esoteric. All this to say, that the best funeral doom is that which balances its punishing heaviness and crawling tempos with clean, graceful melodiousness in order to produce something truly immense. Blazar, Spanish funeral doom/sludge gang have a different philosophy.” Angry burial.
“In the frenzied ritualistic worship of the god Dionysus, acolytes would often perform the violent act known as Sparagamos—tearing limb-from-limb a sacrificial animal, or human. What ecstatic human hands would enact, Spectral Voice conjures in their sophomore bearing its moniker, their attempt to reach “the moment in which – through sacrifice – atavistic wildness is unleashed, and the ultimate exaltation of life through death is realized.”” Giving voice to the void.
![The Howling Void – Into Darkness Ever More Profound [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Howling-Void_01.jpg)
“The Howling Void is a one-man project from San Antonio Texas. Into Darkness Ever More Profound is their seventh album and first in four years. I haven’t delved deeply into the rest of the catalog, but the prevailing sound is atmospheric funeral doom. There are flirtations with more folksy elements and instrumentation, but the vibe is always slow and introspective.” Rage against the Void.
“There was a time, not long ago, when I would’ve proclaimed myself an avid Slow fan. That was before I claimed the rights to cover the Belgian funeral doom duo’s ninth album, Abîmes I. All this time, I had no idea Slow was so productive. In retrospect I don’t know why this surprised me, considering the prolific multi-instrumentalist Déhà is the project’s mastermind. Furthermore, I had no idea Slow spawned all the way back in 2007. My complete negligence regarding Slow’s origins and extensive back catalog qualifies me as the quintessential “false fan.” But rest assured, once I’m done with this write-up for Abîmes I, I’m catching up post haste.” Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.
“In the wretched realms of death metal, Finland’s Lauri Laaksonen is a known commodity. After a five-year stint in Sear, LL, as he’s credited on most liner notes, founded the beastly Desolate Shrine in 2010. We here at AMG have for the most part fawned in a most undignified manner over that project’s output. On the strength of that discography alone, LL could hold his head high among his most celebrated death metal contemporaries. But his impact on the genre doesn’t end there. Since 2018, LL has released some of the very finest slabs of demoralizing deathly doom in recent memory through his band Convocation.” Dark days in Finland.
“Mirror Reaper expanded the scope of what doom could be, delivering a towering epic dedicated to the band’s original drummer Adrien Guerra, who passed away in 2016. Any reasonable human would look at this accomplishment and probably decide it was time to scale things back. Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shriebman are not reasonable. One wonders if they’re even human as they prepare to test the limits of attention span again with Future’s Shadow, a proposed tryptic of one-song records of which the 83-minute The Clandestine Gate is first.” Gate Reaper.
“Here at AMG and Sons LLC we have a strict “no promo, no review” policy which must be adhered to at all times except for when we don’t feel like it. Back in 2021, we received a promo for Hellish Form’s debut Remains, I reviewed it favorably, and it eventually landed on my year-end list. Imagine my surprise when I found out a week ago that the funeral drone two-piece had released their follow-up, Deathless without sending us a promo. In fact, they’ve released it with very little fanfare at all based on my internet sleuthing. First, Willow Ryan and Jacob Lee, if you’re reading this, click here. Second, you’re not getting away that easy.” Only death amd reviews are inevitable.
“71TonMan is roughly equal to ten adult tyrannosaurus rex; seven minke whales; moving to my own favored species, two megalodons; or one Leopard 2 tank, of the type recently pledged by Poland, Germany and others to Ukraine. And this seems appropriate, as a sizeable, if ponderous, battle tank is a pretty good comparator for this doom/sludge outfit.” Weights and pleasures.
“As one of the primary reviewers of doom metal ’round these parts, I find it challenging to continue finding different ways to say “this music is unhappy.” I can only use adjectives like mournful, miserable, wretched or despondent so many times before I’m tired of typing them and you’re tired of reading them. Before me is the prospect of reviewing not just doom, but death doom, and not just death doom, but funeral doom in the form of The Weight of Eternity by Dutch act Angmodnes, and friends, I just don’t have it in me to google more synonyms for “sad.” For this post I propose a change. In the pursuit of more robust ways to say “unhappy,” I’ll employ metaphor.” Weighing the feelz.
