Funeral Doom Metal

Atramentus – Stygian Review

Atramentus – Stygian Review

“Bearing the “gift” of immortality bestowed to him by the God’s sword, a lone knight trudges across the land, snow crunching beneath his feet with every heavy, weary step. After witnessing the death of the sun and thus all life on Earth perishing, he’s left with no choice but to travel the frozen lands alone, forcing him to recall painful memories of the loss of those he loved, forever trapped under miles upon miles of ice. Now that’s a hefty premise for a debut album, and it would take an equally hefty delivery to even give it a whiff of justice.” Sun No))).

Bell Witch/Aerial Ruin – Stygian Bough Volume I Review

Bell Witch/Aerial Ruin – Stygian Bough Volume I Review

“Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman’s decision to make official their partnership with Erik Moggridge, the man in Aerial Ruin’s one-man dark folk band, made sense. Moggridge’s guest vocals on Mirror Reaper conveyed grief and loss on a frequency that Bell Witch couldn’t have reached alone. Stygian Bough Volume I pries those mournful dimensions wide in a symbiotic give-and-take quite unlike anything either act has produced before.” Witch in flight.

Esoteric – A Pyrrhic Existence Review

Esoteric – A Pyrrhic Existence Review

“Funeral doom must be the most impenetrable iteration of extreme metal. The genre’s painfully protracted process either engrosses or evades the listener entirely with its inevitable crawl and morose mass. Cherd of Doom and I are blood-bound for the cause where as “metalheads” like Holdeneye
harbor a taste to offend the soul. This lack of middle ground has been exploited to great effect by many bands over the years, but the fittingly named Esoteric take the proverbial cake. The Brits’ particular brand of doom is about as challenging as it gets and wields an entire weather system of psychedelic textures and thunderous passages.” A study in large-scale doomery.

Mizmor – Cairn Review

Mizmor – Cairn Review

“In Gareth Tunley’s haunting and haunted 2016 film The Ghoul, the whole of reality is bent and infected by the protagonist’s depression. He is trapped in a twisted, magically real manifestation of a Möbius strip. Here, all means of escape are soon revealed to be nothing but bottomless ladders that descend into the darkest craters of the human psyche. The beginning is the end is the beginning. There is no escape. But unlike The Ghoul’s main character who ultimately appears powerless, Portland, Oregon’s A.L.N. has the music of the project Mizmor (מזמור) on his side, both as a weapon and a vessel of catharsis.” WMDs for hope.

Shades of Deep Water – Death’s Threshold Review

Shades of Deep Water – Death’s Threshold Review

“It’s been a fair amount of time now since I first came across Death’s Threshold, the sophomore full-length for “J.H.’s” one-man funeral doom project, Shades of Deep Water, in the plentiful wastes that constitute the Promo Bin. I was astounded; funeral doom is a bit of a rarity, after all, and I would expect the vultures my coworkers to snatch up any errant scraps like, well, vultures. I hesitated only a moment before grabbing the album and absconding. After all, one does not simply listen to funeral doom.” Knee deep in doom.

Ataraxie – Résignés Review

Ataraxie – Résignés Review

“If life really is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing, then France’s Ataraxie have an unenviable inside line. Doom metal is always downtrodden, and its more extreme iterations never fail to manifest the maudlin. But the inherent ceremony and circumstance rarely coalesce into as voracious a sonic black hole as heard on Résignés. The band’s fourth album is an unnatural aperture into a single moment of crushing and immutable understanding. Although it doesn’t deviate from their discography’s trajectory, it just might perfect it.” Welcome to the end.

Evoken – Hypnagogia Review

Evoken – Hypnagogia Review

“My history with Evoken handily mirrors my relationship with the genre these funereal leviathans so masterfully craft. If I’m not entirely of a mind to wallow in the brand of doom that lurches with the gait of mountains, then I struggle to fully commit. But funeral doom has never been for the casual listener, and rightly so. Evoken are ever the reliable constant and have returned to once again divide traditionalists with another morose mass of glacial grief. Hypnagogia is the Americans’ sixth album and arrives secure in its ability to fill some sizable shoes.” Death to joy.

Un – Sentiment Review

Un – Sentiment Review

“The tail-end of 2015 yielded a fantastic doom metal record which may have reached more year-end lists had it not been unveiled in December. It was called The Tomb of All Things and was the product of a Seattle four-piece with the unGoogleable name of Un. It spun a menacing tale with the tools of funeral doom and death metal and proudly bore some of the best artwork of that year, too. Their sophomore full-length, entitled Sentiment, is now poised for release, with appropriately amazing artwork to match. It can be considered a counterpart to my recent Fórn review: how to execute doom metal and how to not.” Fun with Un.

Obseqvies – The Hours of My Wake Review

Obseqvies – The Hours of My Wake Review

“I’ve branched out quite a bit over the years in my time with Angry Metal Guy & Affiliates, LLC., and over the years, you notice a bit of bleed-through when it comes to discovering new bands. Many are trying to push boundaries as hard and as far as humanly possible in hopes to get noticed by music reviewers such as myself. Others hope that by emulating a well-proven and time-tested sound but with as much conviction as possible, they can win us over by virtue of hooks, clever melodies, and just straight-up heart and soul. What the fuck am I getting at, you may ask? The latter is the path of the day here, as Finnish funeral doombearers Obseqvies hope to draw my eye (of solitude) with their debut album, The Hours of My Wake. With three songs at almost an hour in length, did they succeed?” Time, taking its toll on you.