FUNERAL DOOM : LES 13 ORAISONS FUNEBRES Finland, land of a thousand lakes and boreal forest, a haven where nature still reigns supreme. A territory subject to a harsh climate, home to a people became famous for his modesty and humility. A nation discreet, standing deliberately away from the spotlight and therefore relatively unknown despite the many successes it has gained internationally in many areas. Firstly, how can we forget that Finland is the country's official Santa Claus, this illustrates popular figure ignites the imagination of millions of cherubs around the world. But Finland is not just imagination, dreams and traditions, but also a country with one of the best performing education systems in the world and has to his credit a good number of successes in various sectors of modern technology such as telecommunications (Nokia), the guided transport systems (Kone) or design (Marimekko). A country which has also seen a plethora of success in motorsport (sounding names such as Raikkonen, Hakkinen, Rosberg, Vatanen, Gronholm, Kankkunen Mäkinen or not you are certainly not unknown) and javelin (Siitonen, Sinersaari, Parviainen, Lillak, or Pitkämäki known for - quite unintentionally - skewered Salim Sdiri at the Golden Gala in Rome in 2007) and differs in terms of artistic culture including music. The classical composer Jean Sibelius is the author of "Finlandia" which appears on the credits of "Die Hard 2" ("58 Minutes To Live") and the School of Music in his name (Sibelius Academy ), the one in Finland, is one of the most prestigious in Europe. Finland is also the other countries of rock and metal, as evidenced by the success Planetary Metal Symphony Nightwish and "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi , surprise winner of Eurovision 2006, to the chagrin of our Michel Drucker and Claudy Siar national (which we will never forget the negative comments). Besides the many training working in various styles and varied, having managed to make a name on this stage overloaded: Apocalyptica (whose musicians come from the Sibelius Academy), HIM, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, The 69 Eyes , Rasmus, Children Of Bodom , Gloomy Grim , Horna, Impaled Nazarene , Beherit , Archgoat ... An international undeniable and remarkable given the small size of the country, but remains little developed, the Finland is not the kind to gargle their triumphs. But modernity Finland and internationally recognized his artistic talents not only with great difficulty hiding the ills of his people from darkness that consumes him. Indeed, the reputation of Finland in the field of suicide is well established, regularly taking the upper hand in the statistics world, when it does not pick up the prize, even after the turn of 1990 was the end of the painful period of urbanization and economic development, and launching many campaigns and prevention among youth who are the main victims. Contrary to popular belief dear to our region where people swear by a dazzling sun and temperatures above 30 ° C, the criteria of cold, night and isolation through no fault (or then for very little). The proof neighbors Scandinavian and Russian "with" as many of these difficult conditions have no statistics as maddening. The causes are rather to be sought in a profound social malaise, with unemployment on the front line, long remained very high (especially among youth, but fortunately free and regular drop since the early 2000s), and also especially alcohol, bad people of Finland. A culture of drunkenness, unbridled quest that much more than a remedy to an alleged melancholy, is truly entered into the national heritage. Omnipresent in life, the discussions, the Finnish daily, alcohol wreaks havoc and statistics, implacable, do not lie: a vast majority of suicides are passed to the document at a staggering drunk. A scourge which themselves Finns tend to minimize the impact and scope, reinforced in this by some of their most famous personalities: Sibelius himself was a hopeless alcoholic, Finnish metalheads and musicians, which you read interviews with your favorite mags and webzines, recognize themselves as inveterate drinkers and capable of beating anyone in this game. Moreover, to a lesser degree but still revealing, who better than Kimi Raikkonen is able to swallow a large glass of champagne on the podium after a long grueling race in F1? In short, alcohol is the Finnish identity, and they are proud. Besides, this is where one of the few performances which home they like to brag. Finland, a country plagued by a very extreme contrast dark / light, torn between splendor and decadence, and it is therefore not surprising that a style such as Funeral Doom there emerged. A style based on a subtle blend of Doom / Death arch-slow and spare, ethereal and ambient music, which the duality is simply a reflection of society Finnish, his birthplace. Styling as capable of digging his grave six feet under than rise to stratospheric heights, representing both the frustration and magnificence, and we have plenty of time to describe to you through this selection constitutes the first chapter of our treatise on the Doom, as you by submitting the cornerstones, the founding fathers that are the Finnish Thergothon Skepticism and emerged in the early 90s, as well as some representatives of this inevitable scene that s' has been internationalized, showing that this ambivalence is not the exclusive property Finns, even if they remain, if not champions, at least one serious customer. 
Thergothon - Stream From The Heavens (1994) 1994: a year marked forever by the release of "Stream From The Heavens", often rated "the most depressive album of all time" and represented the birth of a new offshoot of Doom: The Funeral. Work of a Finnish trio rife as the Thergothon , which certainly did not expect to buy one day any cult status (at most they had the ambition to stand out from the Doom / Death as practiced at the time by Winter particular, that is to say very monolithic, dense and crushing) and feed the inspiration of so many groups (their compatriots Skepticism and Shape Of Despair first), "Stream From The Heavens" leads the Doom to lands hitherto unexplored. Thergothon tirelessly dug his grave with the pulses through the lavished tortured riffs and beats painfully slow, properly inhuman, but dons simultaneously approach very atmospheric guitars have a lighter texture, more rickety, leads the melodic creep, the bass is absent, mixing stripped, airy, and ethereal synth, sometimes accompanied by arpeggios crystalline amount as the soul of a deceased to the heavens. A duality that is also found in the song, Death grunts, horrific by their mucus and earthy overtones, being offset by solemn chants of plain chant. The term "Funeral" which comes later is therefore not misused. Thergothon have done a brief stint in our world, three short years of existence, a small turn and then goes away ... leaving the way an album, one album, but what album: a reference, rather unpopular in his time, certainly as too extreme and too original, but whose impact on the Doom scene will eventually be recognized after a few years. An impact which had been announced by the demo "fhtagn-Naghi Yog-Sothoth" has already rattled the underground in the early 90s by presenting an embryo still very primitive in what was to be "From The Stream Heavens : A cornerstone that was very difficult to see the day (almost two years elapsed between registration and publication), because of worries label and split the group. Today Thergothon is gone but his spirit continues to live through this eternal work. Do not we say that legends never die? Skepticism - Stormcrowfleet (1995)
The "Stormcrowfleet" of Skepticism is one of the founding acts of Funeral Doom as well as the "Stream From The Heavens" from Thergothon . Yet he is an outsider in the discography of Finland. This first album is a mixture between clever and ethereal landscapes heavy bummer. With a pocket enigmatic music Skepticism is equally important. While complaints Thergothon seem to emanate from a body emaciated phase putrefied, those Skepticism are those of the soul of that body who wandered in the nine circles of Dante's Inferno. If the parties appear to have weather more control on recent achievements Skepticism, "Stormcrowfleet" remains the exception that proves the rule. Guitars tenuous and sidelined from the very first notes of "Sing Of A Storm," Skepticism displays its difference. One might think that the absence of a bass in favor of keyboards religio-mystical almost everywhere could be a handicap to release the incredible power and heaviness, Doom, necessary for a disc like this and yet he is nothing. Obviously, the growl of Matti is no stranger to this result but more than individual qualities to be inspected and analyzed under every angle, take the music of "Stormcrowfleet" as a coherent whole. Such interplay between the musicians, such a willingness to express his dismay with the music could not only lead to the almost mystical purity of this first album. Many people regret the turn that took the Finns for their future benefits and among them some people even consider that Skepticism is the group that one album. I will not be so categorical, but it is clear the impact of this album, like their comrades of Thergothon , throughout Funeral Doom scene, which, after asking his two major foundations, opened the royal road to the maturation of the genre. As an "Altar of Madness" or "Kill 'Em All" in their time, Stormcrowfleet is the second entity of this two-headed eagle that still flies blithely and smoldering in his eyes all his offspring that respects and rents for centuries and centuries. ESOTERIC - The Pernicious Enigma (1997) Esoteric . The Pernicious Enigma. These few words should normally be sufficient to describe the music of British group. With rudimentary English, they allow you to grasp what the essence of what you'll find throughout this double album. Add to this, the demonstrator also wallet and enigmatic round should be played. These four words and image, even if they perfectly summarize the contents of this disk, you may say, it's foutage of mouth after all the stones that makes you swallow. So yours truly will attempt to remove the pith and substance, avoiding any risk of contamination, unnecessary and redundant. English Training which was released in 1992, Esoteric made his name in the discreet world of Funeral Doom. But they sound so personal and their approach to music more personal and put some aside in a world where the big boys that are Skepticism Shape Of Despair or reign supreme. "The Pernicious Enigma" is the second full-length of mischief and certainly English, although some fans will say the opposite, the album's most successful and most ambitious. The master piece in a discography that now has four major releases. If Esoteric is so complicated that it is mainly to classify the British not limited only to strict gender spheres. They do not hesitate to cross certain boundaries, whether justly or gender they are musical. For ambitious, you can also say "difficult". For it is indeed difficult to absorb their music. It is a connoisseur of Funeral tells you. Firstly, the duration of the album that points to two hours may put off some. We know the likes Funeral Songs rivers and convoluted but Esoteric pushes it even further than his colleagues. And that voice! It is clear that the song that alternates between a growl and unconventional the screaming vocals and cavernous is a major obstacle to enlightenment. Enlightenment? The word is certainly paradoxical that just as enlightenment is a gradual descent abyssal where all light is doomed to disappear. If you pass the course of her voice enhanced by atypical moult effects of reverb or echo, the teacher places will let you see the richness of its malaise. Admittedly, some titles including "At War With The Race are you stir more vigorously numb your guts by doing a Death Metal faster but still too dark but they are qu'interludes in a world of despair and heaviness. On this album, Esoteric surrounded by no less than three guitarists and this "surplus" creates webs and unique atmospheres, sometimes described as psychedelic. Six musicians who have mastered their art to perfection and one note that assemble the frame of a nothingness in narcotics; many are those who say that Esoteric is certainly the largest group that is depressed in the sphere Funeral. And probably rightly so. Listening to this album is just as delicious as painful. Suffice to say that we must have nerves of steel because it is typically an album anxiogenic that can not be overflown. The disposal is in pain and joy as if Pinhead and his Cenobites were bona fide members of the group. Pleasure and / or sentence are procured that derives measurable proportion to intense two hours will pass. You will be notified. SHAPE OF DESPAIR - Shades of ... (2000) Composed of musicians from various formations in Finland more or less recognized ( Rapture, Thy Serpent , Finntroll or Amorphis , among others), Shape Of Despair sextet mark with her debut album "Shades Of ..." released by Spikefarm Records, the beginning of the rise of Funeral Doom and its openness to spheres more melodic. A genre that was previously owned by a tiny handful of groups such as Thergothon (RIP), Skepticism, Mournful Congregation , Esoteric , and whose label Firebox (Finland also, as c is weird ...) will shortly after her business with My Shameful , Pantheist, Until Death Overtakes Me ( UDOM ) Tyranny and company ... Recorded in the heart of winter 1999 / 2000, "Shades Of ..." album is by far the most typically Funeral Doom Shape Of Despair , the most close to the roots of the style while bringing to the lands still more atmospheric, without reaching the substance of a UDOM but we feel clearly that Jarno Salomaa, leader training, is a big fan of ambient work Brian Eno and productions Cold Meat Industry ( Raison d'Etre and Desiderii Marginis first line). This first album, made with 4 / 5 pieces from the demo "Alone in the Mist" (made while the band was still called Raven ) re-recorded for the occasion, place the synth plans, leads and melodic guitars very clear in front, thus creating a peaceful atmosphere, full of profound beauty, enhanced by the use of a flute singing sweet melodies, giving the impression of floating unattached in mysterious and immeasurable limbo, the hypnotic rhythm and quasi-static imposed by the battery. Electric guitars, repeating the same notes to infinity, with no real riff, are more insistent clobbered. Relegated to the background, they show that the time is now healing and wholeness. "Shades Of ..." may be interpreted as a vision of purgatory where the soul purified of its apparent evils, pain and torment no longer represented a distant memory. Impression reinforced by the duality of votes, the growl of Tony abysmal Mäensivu evoking roars of Hell, while the vocals of Nathalie Safrosskin (since become Mrs. Koskinen), so that they seem almost unreal outputs of a synth symbolizing the call of the angels of heaven. Two new albums ("Angles of Distress" - 2001, "Illusion's Play" - 2004) and an eponymous EP (2005) marked the gradual exit of the anonymity of members Shape Of Despair and the evolution of the group to a music more accessible, breaking away from its roots to offer a Funeral Doom / Death more conventional and accessible by replacing the flute and a violin more usual Toni Mäensivu by Pasi Koskinen (the growl, while well made, still less crude primitive than its predecessor), while retaining its contemplative dimension through many parts purely ambient. The long lack of concrete news that followed it, until the recent release of the EP "Written In My Scars", has meant that we were wondering if Shape Of Despair did not eventually fade into the border between this world and the 'beyond. In any case, if purgatory is like "Shades Of ..." I signed right away ... and you? Evoken - Quietus (2001) Among the new generation of Americans who doomsters link their illness to live in the mid 90's, there is a clear tendency to follow suit very dark big brother Winter rather than the traditional St Vitus . The race to slow, if we can put it that way, saw the birth of some notable talent: we think Novembers Doom , Morgion ... Evoken and . The latter, after releasing a first heavy granite block at the prompt alluring ("Embrace the Emptiness"), introduced in 2001 what we may consider his masterpiece: "Quietus." The album is not exactly revolutionary, it is neither slower nor the heaviest nor the most ultimate in all directions that may take this term when talking about Doom. His approach is situated on the borders of Funeral Doom and Doom / Death, in this no man's land a little confused at the terminals uncertain. Besides, there is still not quite in the right. Its monolithic heaviness, real leaded by riffing, typing languorous and growl from beyond the grave, manages to move with grace and lightness, without resorting to illegal substances. Inconsistent all this? Not when it handles the music with as much talent keyboards are exquisitely delicate design of beautiful arabesques in the cold stone, the emotion of two notes of the piano or violin effluvium breath of ethereal beauty. We can dress up Evoken a third label, air it, which is not necessarily the preserve of Funeral Doom as traditionally understood. This is precisely where lies the coup. Rub the little glow in the emotional landscape of extreme funeral doom which normally means hopeless. By playing on this very subtle and clear light in a sea of darkness, "Quietus" captivates, seduces and sucks totally ... his audience beyond the grave, but that it could not resist this song property claims of sirens. Although the sixty minutes are very hard homogeneous and without time low, we can highlight some particularly magical moments: the bewitching "In Pestilence, Burning", his superb piano and his final break breath, or the full half-hour saw the beautiful sequenced "Where Ghosts Fall Silent" / "Quietus" / "Embrace the Emptiness", a triptych combining poignant despair, melancholy and beauty. No revolution in "Quietus" then, but a world beyond time and space, immersive and addictive as hell to be, which can both be considered a must and a gateway of choice in the world of Funeral Doom. Pantheist - O Solitude (2003) 
God is everything, and everything is God ... this is the basic principle of the doctrine of pantheism his mark liturgical music project that Kostas Panagiotou founded some time after leaving his native Greece to join her temporary adoption of Belgium. A principle which, as is explained, rough around the edges, can seem confusing our sphere with broken metal onslaught blasphemous and offensive anti-religious. And yet, if we consider especially the Doom, territory preaching of Mr. Kostas, is this not a genre closely related to the sanctity of its themes often with a strong religious and Candlemass Tristitia are only two examples among many others? ... Of course, do not expect, above all in training at home Pantheist, seeing a bunch of lights explode and cretinous beatific ... sorry, Christian each other. Let there be no mistake, it speaks well of Doom here! Spread the word, name di dieu! The tone is set at Emphasizing the pain, a concept inherent to any religion elsewhere. For Pantheist , it is expressed in a stunning book called "O Solitude" Framed watermarks Vergeur the God of Skepticism , sharing his propensity for the use of solemn organ while offering personal reading. Pantheist evokes more monastic chapel the day before the terrible hell of Finnish monster. It is time to withdrawal, on reflection, to doubt, to the questioning. Point too monolithic instrumentation in which the human feelings while the compositions unfurl in s'arborisent fine architecture, largely relieved the austerity of his own divinity inspiring. "O Solitude" is a long way to cross a temporary place of martyrdom, struck moments of rebellion when Nicolas Tambuyzer shakes the earth with his mammoth heavy loads (lunge even a frenzied solo on the last movement " Time "), triggered discharge of anger when Oscar Strik holds some relevant shrug of pace up to blast (the final title track and" Time "). "O Solitude" is a long ordeal dotted with intimate acoustic breaks and dazzling passages Neoclassical Darkwave (piano, cello) conducive to meditation, persistent stigma of the pre-"1000 Years", from the dawn of Pantheist where Kostas exercising solo. Despondency and hope to succeed, the suffering is played with ataraxia, but will remain tenacious deadly, pervasive ... The mark Pantheist which will be magnified on the grandiose "Amartia" (2005), a concept album based on the seven deadly sins. The pain is eternal, but the relief printed in the gloom, as the diversity of voice (loud growl, singing chants of clear, sighs, spoken words), nevertheless makes it work Pantheist relatively more accessible than many of those made by its congeners Funeral Doom. mastodons that were found mostly dormant during the early years of the new millennium has seen the house Firebox wade to root out this kind of underground music in which he was deeply buried. The exhumation combined and Pantheist Until Death Overtakes Me in 2003 (which also combine with an astonishing "Envy Us" covering themes of Chopin and Beethoven) made at this point of Belgium 's other countries of Funeral Doom. Until Death Overtakes Me - Prelude To Monolith (2003) 
It is these artists who can find fulfillment only by working in their corner, creating and leading multiple projects parallel to spill their creative overflow. The Belgian Stijn Van Cauter in part: almost twenty concurrent projects, including a good half centered around his single person, with musical inclinations remain largely focused on the Doom and Ambient music, while presenting various sensitivities can sometimes take to the Indus, or the Black Noise. Until Death Overtakes Me (abbreviation UDOM that for obvious reasons of convenience) is the central project, one by which all began with moult and experiments led to moult sequelae. It is also its most famous project, particularly through his signature at Firebox (the machine to produce Funeral Doom) on the occasion of the release of "Prelude to Monolith" in 2003. Of Funeral Doom, UDOM has retained its propensity atmospheric and dark duality / beauty, but so far the term remains quite simplistic to truly describe the essence music of one-man band. After two albums ("Symphony I - Deep Dark Red" and "Symphony II - Absence of Life") released in 2001 on the own label of S. Van Cauter (NULLL Records) and characterized by a style strongly to a peeping Ambient melancholic and ethereal synths where reign supreme, inhabited by neo-classical influences, sometimes close to the Gothic / Darkwave Arcana way, all operating in a Funeral quiet punctuated by the beat of drums (not "true" battery here) with its heavy and serious ritual deeply gives dimension to the art of UDOM, the man then launched in an ambitious concept comes in three acts: the Monolith, strongly inspired by the work of Stanley Kubrick's "2001, A Space Odyssey" and whose "Prelude to Monolith" is the gateway to the path leads to this strange building. This album, like the first appearance of the Monolith in the cinematographic work, symbolizes changes. The evolution of UDOM to register more ambient, more and more ambient and minimalist compositions long support, with guitars being practically mute and not playing anymore but simple riffs, notes stretched to infinity. The move towards Ambient / Drone where the harmonies take us far, far into the infinity of the cosmic spheres, carried away by currents celestial drifting into another dimension impression of majesty and mystery, as deep growls and quasi- unintelligible S. Van Cauter parent dark aura, enhanced by the beautiful cover of the "Funeral March" by Chopin, in any organ, piano and ethereal layers, ending the "Prelude to Monolith." A funeral march towards the path that symbolizes "Interludium I - Funeral Path" (2004), the second act with the full of that recovery, and a version totally ambient "Funeral Dance", a song that will appear rearranged in the third and last act "Symphony III - Monolith" (2006) representing the discovery of this monument of loneliness, emptiness and nil as described by the lyrics while the music is more luminous, is adorned with a glow that seems to be hope ... A duality is also reflected in the final scene of "2001, 'Space Odyssey ", the emergence of the last of the monolith, which is then a symbol of death and rebirth. If one likes to make another parallel between the cinematographic Kubrick and the musical work of Van Cauter, "Symphony III" would signal the rebirth of UDOM ? ... The rebirth of a new musical expression? A new theme? ... Who knows? ... The answer may be to those who already appeared to have posed an attentive ear to the last-born "Days Without Hope" (2009). Anyway, the two works have in common complex allegories abound and mystical meanings, leaving a whole field of interpretation and reflection to those who lay the eyes and ears, with the devil monolith which ultimately raises more questions than it provides answers ... Mournful Congregation - The Monad of Creation (2005) I am wary of lists like the plague. They are often influenced by the latest releases and the Internet as it is difficult to know really a "user", you never know if you read something which demonstrates a feeling honest, if the guy is a trend in which "good taste of the moment" or whether it falls into the über-attitude. Seeing "The Monad of Creation" from Mournful Congregation since its release prance top of the best groups of Funeral Doom alongside groups such as Worship, which have nothing to do there, it was enough to arouse my suspicion. Nevertheless, one should never criticize anything until we do not know and it is this premise that I asked three years ago a little attentive ear on the second album of Australians not too finally know what to expect . Inspiration Oh how saving! In the muck of groups whose sole ambition is to release a CD without any emotion (so long as a label signed by Ukrainian and Belarusian, whatever), the jewel, "The Monad Creation of "almost blinded by its beauty ultimate. If you think about it, the different analogies that is most often the Funeral Doom evoke graves decaying and desolate lunar landscape, tortured souls seeking rest uncertain ... However, etymologically speaking, is supposed to be a "funeral music." Aussies of Mournful Congregation have understood the subtle nuances and make "The Monad of Creation" the perfect trailer for a funeral and not of the pangs of death. It follows four titles this procession which leads the coffin of the church vault, although the mean Wailing relatives but we remember the good times we spent with the deceased. All is not gloom and despair but also beauty and serenity. Instrumentation beautiful all in grace, depth, without ever falling into the Grand Guignol but still staying sober brings a maturity that few such groups can testify. Guitars, very close to the sound of early- Anathema, the complaint are rising crescendo, accompanied by the drums that punctuate the funeral march and the growl that is as much as the grave of lament. After all, a funeral is an event that must remain worthy if it was ever so little respect for the deceased. Respect for this album, impossible to miss. Moreover, for a disk of Funeral Doom, he tamed relatively easily and provides you with each new listen to his rich offering. Do not like the snob in me stupidly and do not waste time searching the new trend came from Azerbaijan or Estonia when such a work waiting to be shared. Tyranny - Tides of Awakening (2005) In the family groups of Funeral Doom Firebox launched by the team (who has since transferred this genre to its subdivision Firedoom), I ask Tyranny, or the mysterious duo Mäkelä / raging Lindqvist also known as a Wormphlegm Register dirtier and raw. Tyranny, not content to confirm the supremacy of Finland in terms of Funeral Doom, marks a homecoming of style: not to dispose of a very strong atmospheric side, the frame comes to a musical form Doom / Death largest in great reinforcement of crushing riffs, texture thick and filthy, and cumbersome battery, fingering her clubbed, reminiscences Winter / Disembowelment era "pre-Funeral." After the recording of "Bleak VISTAA" (2004), a 3 demo tracks (for 45 minutes!) Have opened their doors Firebox (the label having then quick to edit the CD format, with these titles and the world giving the impression of drift, immersed in a cesspool filled with corpses stinking muddy) Tyranny has launched its first and only full-length to date, "Tides of Awakening" (2005) in Lovecraft's concept (as did Thergothon for his first demo), which is the most famous: the Call of Cthulhu, the album in question was designed as an adaptation of the new American writer. A very ambitious challenge, but a complete success! ... For who better than Tyranny could offer music transcription as faithful, recalling all the destructive power of this huge creature, entity millennium came from outer space, dozing in R'lyeh the dead, his remains, the city Cyclopean buried in the ocean depths, until he woke up to sound the death knell of humanity. The skeleton guitar / drums advance a slow but relentless, leaving behind only ruins and desolation smoldering carcasses. Framing monumental, titanic, the synths, bunched ubiquitous, a parent will be both sinister and supernatural, reinforced by the throaty, deep, inhuman and whose effects reverb, surround compositions leaving no moment respite, from the first resonance tribal toms / cymbals "Coalescent Of The Inhumane Awareness" to the final "entreats Primaeval To The Chaos", while Dark Ambient apocalyptic incantation featuring the eddies of the ocean depths ... the alarm clock abomination ... the awakening of a phenomenal force, beyond the understanding of human beings. No stay with this juggernaut that is "Tides of Awakening," his anger by hitting relentlessly unforgiving, if not some clear arpeggios at the end of "Upon the War-Torn Shape of Cold Earth", representing a meager hope survival, quickly annihilated. An unusual work, imbued with a strong ritual dimension, that of the myth of Cthulhu worshipers, making her memory alive through the ages until the day he awoke, the day cometh its colossal power. Meanwhile, the creature Tyranny threw a hell paved with the "Tides of Awakening. "creature it has since returned to his den, but who knows if it will not wake up again one day ... Ph'nglui mglw'nafh R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn Tyranny
AHAB - The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006) The Doom genre is a relatively obscure. Often the beginner will hardly mention any group and often is entitled to "Black Sabbath , you put it in the Doom?". While other extreme genres like Black Metal or Death Metal Yet little easier to access, generate cohorts of fanboys, the Doom, unmoved by the modes, seems to be spared the teen attitude. however, did not count on Ahab. The German group was barely out his first album he was already lionized. Surprising especially considering that the Funeral Doom and a fortiori Music Ahab is in Doom which is becoming more extreme and less mainstream. Yet, if we consider some figures a few moments, the success of Ahab is quite dazzling. Take the great evil horned what last.fm, Skepticism are just 19,000 listeners, not even Thergothon 10000 and prances Ahab leads the hit parade Funeral Doom with 22,000 listeners, and yet they have only two albums to their credit. So? What are the reasons for this success, its popularity while the band was barely 5 years old? Certainly not because of a great label, Napalm Records by the modest figure of minnows in the world of Metal side that stables are to Nuclear Blast or Century Media Records. I also doubt whether their music has made them the Tokyo Hotel's Funeral Doom. We'll talk about that, but musically Ahab does no concession to the trend attitude. In my opinion, the deliberate bias Ahab want to break the codes "lexical" kind of explains part of the interest that many fans were wearing them. Here, there is no question of poverty, feelings and other fatal doomitudes exploiting human despair, but simply to tell the great story of Moby Dick. In Melville's novel, Ahab is this tyrannical captain whose only obsession is to kill the famous whale Moby Dick. So ok, on paper, it can be laughable or at least smile, but when the German quartet that transcribes music, needless to say we have any more in mind for any pub with Yann Galak, Marina and Oum le Dauphin. Topped with keyboards that, for once, are quite Skepticism , the pieces are, compared to the behemoths like Funeral Catacombs or Hierophant , incredibly complex and musically, despite their extreme slowness, very rich. The guitars are very clean and almost warm by the time the leads and even though (again) the mix has shifted the low, the battery is incredibly complex and silenced the gossips who think that to play the Funeral, a sudden cymbal every three minutes and a snare drum every five is plenty. This is certainly also a key to the success of Ahab who clearly chose the Funeral by choice not by default because they were not technically gifted enough to make Brutal Death or I do not know what. Sea by Ahab is viscous and dangerous. Full of creatures ready to do battle with the elements and with you. Dark and pernicious as the music of Ahab, she makes you prey slowly but surely. The securities, which averaged around 10 minutes, set up the scenes chronology similar to that of the novel by Herman Melville. If at times some guitar parts seem light and ethereal, almost seventies in their implementation, is often the sunshine before the great hunt where many sailors perished body and soul. Ahab distills his music so relentless you snapping the surface, such as the harpoon to drag you into the depths of the ocean. Urna - Sepulcrum (2006) 
The Metal is so extreme that one believes always heard the most disgusting thing, the most morbid, the most monstrous of all. The Funeral Doom, one of its most intractable representatives, is such that we invariably think, and it most sincerely the world, having reached the ultimate bottom-most depths of the abyss abyss ... And yet there always happens when you one day will quickly review your decision. Date that reflects a disturbing hooded figure, where the bird of ill omen of his smock draped black obsidian approaching you stare in his eyes grim, offering a carnivorous grin down even further the bottom end of the shoal, digging into the den of corpses lying in the adipocere, asphyxiating and exhume the viscous mass grave. Digging, again and again to identify the path to the mouth of the womb and burning sulfur on Earth, home to the monumental temple of Urna , instead of the most appalling abuse and torture. Explore Horror and eventually die of terror at the visions of abomination it imposes. course, we knew that the Alps were not MZ & RM of pranksters, evidenced by the Black Metal catacombs relied Locus Mortis and represents the original foundations of our two worship haruspices devote to Death. By blowing this noxious exhalation Funeral Doom already a highly putrid and dirty with a Dark Ambient most distressing and unhealthy Urna developed with "Sepulcrum" a ritual as much as a singular proper immondicité unheard. If in this summary as you touch seems to be emerging spectrum of recent work Nortt , indisputably shows that the execution is not. If the plays in the Danish registry of the old crypt of hectares lost in fog, the Italians suggest a far more imposing mausoleum and evil. keyboards set a scene of abject unsustainable, articulating guitars as stunted as human carcasses littering the floor of the damned, as suffocating as the manure flowed out of the body dismembered, mutilated in the imprecations éructées by a cruel and bloodthirsty growl . The basement Funeral Doom / Ambient is pushed paroxysm of insane Black Metal with a Urna will mainly withdrawn beyond episodic blastées parties (like the dreaded "Ab Vita Morte (In Fidei Abitus)" and "Mors Imperatrix Mundi "), a sound raw and chaotic. Fierce and ruthless Urna also knows winning Deep in phases over the footprints of mysticism ("And Fundamentum Factum", "Ego Sum" or the excellent cover of "The Gate of Nanna", the anthem of occult Beherit), the depth of fetid pond stagnant water where the remains are thrown macabre. Within its ambient interludes, Urna adopts a more contemplative vision atrocious souls of the victims amounting to watch the massacre ... they were massacred. Alliant sepulchral aura worthy of the great Skepticism the relentless march of the prodigious Tyranny and infamy of the Black Metal Urna enacted a work of rare intensity horror, which could not be blamed only one (small) flaw: the use of drum machine. Lacking resonance because timed too dry and mechanical, she amputated the work of a (light) part of its extent. The entity is not invincible, but almost ... Asunder - Works Will Come Undone (2006) The first album of Asunder was really nothing remarkable. "A Clarion Call" was certainly a good album Doom / Death, but nothing that makes a classic in spite of relatively drifts enough 70's already marked on the first album. It is giving birth to "Works Will Come Undone" that really Asunder forth one of the very best achievements of Funeral Doom scene. Slowing the tempo even more than their first disc, U.S. Oakland us lay a hard course of Funeral Doom, but contrary to good numbers from training of this kind, there is a certain freshness to their music . Where we lay other masterpieces of dark leaden Asunder delivers a musical very airy and air, almost ethereal. Hard to believe, especially since the album only consists of two tracks. You could be entitled to expect a monolith impenetrable yet it is not. The almost progressive structure of these two songs and the sound these guitars are not clear for nothing. Often seen in the dark like that, but few can get this intense feeling of wide open spaces, sorry indeed, but full of richness and sadness as Asunder did on this opus magnus. Of course, one may regret that the second title "Rite of Finality" is constituted by a half very long piece Ambient and Drone at once, but it perfectly complements this album imbued with a deep nostalgia where guitar solos almost from another time and other cellos add to the black beauty on this disc almost Victorian timeless and almost instantly share this kind. My greatest sadness is that the project Asunder has been put in brackets to other bodies of the various musicians. Sadness and anger when we measure the talent updated on this disc of rare intensity and the (dis) hopes that we could definitely rely on this group apart. WORSHIP - Dooom (2007) And now to finish off our 13th funeral oration, the ultimate, marked by the sign of the curse .. . But to cut short any superstitious prejudice, know that it does not mean in any way the end of troublemakers. That our fans can rest assured, as our detractors can continue to make bile. is what is so far the only album of Worship , then that the initial Franco-German project is about to celebrate his 13th birthday ...! That of a new drama? ... Because today hovers over Worship the suicide of his co-founder Max Vernier, aka Fucked-Up Mad Max, who left his companion in misfortune Daniel "The Doommonger" Pharos in disarray as it began seven long years to recover, the entity Worpship only surviving only through a handful of splits. Seven long years to surround himself with a new line-up and complete the famous "Dooom", one of the albums that have been most painful to see the day. And sentence, he was selling. Already, there is only see title ... "Dooom" ... So yes, it may seem hard to Effexor, it has made the kind of quintessential Doom Doom Doom more, but we must recognize that the atmosphere is particularly leaded by the One of the most tattles paving the planet Metal, nothing less. On entry, they are pure killing riffs that come to us mow. And it continues on a pace of catatonic for 73 minutes to scrape looooongues given below ground and progress constantly encountered. The carcass is dragging, crawl, stumble. The dying man trying to get on their feet before picking up yet another times to eat gravel and finish the mouth to shreds. The battery is almost rare but each is a hammer blow sending him to bite the dust. The cavernous growl, distortion nauseous and arpeggios are all serious ailments morbid mortify the flop, pushing the corpse to the bridge rising above the precipice, the ultimate fall, salvation. The air passages made shots choirs and other sounds ominous bells (like the terrific "Graveyard Horizon") plant the funeral stele. The harmonies are tortured write the worst evils of life dripping with disgust, while the ghost of the deceased appears by a few groans and ghostly voice before concluding "I Am the End - Crucifixion Part II" a poignant epilogue to the piano. Finally, the special care taken in the preparation of the digipack artwork and finishes to celebrate the monument to grief by offering a magnificent funeral wreath. one inhuman slow to pass Thergothon for a 100 meter sprinter, a painful melancholy whining to the most afflicted Mournful Congregation, "Dooom" can be seen as a sort of condensed Funeral Doom genre which Worship brings his immense lot of suffering in its most atrocious and suicidal. "Dooom" is one of the most relentless pressure differential ever created. "Dooom" is one of the most impressive headstones erected in the cemetery of Funeral Doom. "Dooom" is the funeral agreement that leaves no chance. You have been warned ... directed by Article vastAire Vinterdrøm and with the participation of Eulmatt
