MOURNFUL CONGREGATION - The Exuviae Of Gods Part I EP review

 

MOURNFUL CONGREGATION - The Exuviae Of Gods (Part I) EP 

20 Buck Spin

This is the first of two EPs that Australia's funeral doom merchants will release this year. It's been a few years since their last one, The Incubus of Karma, from 2018. But as they say, misery takes time. And musically MOURNFUL CONGREGATION specialize in the low, slow and thoroughly epic. 

This EP contains three cuts, the first being the fourteen plus minute sojourn "Mountainous Shadows Cast Through Time". It's typical MOURNFUL CONGREGATION as in major heavy riffs, plenty of guitar driven melody and the cavernous vocals. It opens with some keyboards so to break the monotony. 

The second and title cut, "The Exuviae of Gods", is a beautiful, atmospheric and could be proggy instrumental. The third and final song is "An Epic Dream of Desire" and what I consider the money cut. This a song from one of their early demos and reworked. I don't have any of the band's demos. So musically it's cool to hear their early slow and let's bury the dead funeral doom beginnings. 

All in all this EP is amazing especially since I'm a fan. 

https://www.20buckspin.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://mournfulcongregation.bandcamp.com/album/the-exuviae-of-gods-part-i

APHONIC THRENODY - The Great Hatred review

APHONIC THRENODY - The Great Hatred 

Transcending Obscurity Records

A few years ago I did a review for another band from this label called TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS. They were a pretty heavy handed funeral doom band which features members from various other acts from other nations. One of their members was guitarist /bassist Riccardo Veronese from England. So here we have Veronese's other band, although he's in a few more.

APHONIC THRENODY is another international band featuring (along with Veronese) Juan Esteban Escobar from Chile on keyboards and American Justin Buller on guitars. Both of whom are in bands I've never heard of, yeah my loss right. But anyways The Great Hatred, which is their third full length, does not stray too far from what Veronese was doing with TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS.

This album is what I'd call the epitome of funeral doom or if you prefer, atmospheric death doom. Genre taglines a side if you like MY DYING BRIDE then this is right up your alley. You've got your heavy riffs paired with guitar lead melodies which carry you along. The vocals are a mix of depressive growls or screams of a bear in torment. Then there's the whispered clean singing runs which are used slightly and effectively. I like how on some songs the bass and piano work so well together and complimenting each other.

For me it's the soaring melodies aligned with the claustrophobic atmosphere of their sound which keeps me interested in this slightly less than an hour long release. There's six mostly long cuts. Of those surprisingly I think the ones over ten minutes in length are the most captivating and yeah not boring or repetitive. I'm talking about the menacing and so reminiscent of MDB "The Rise of the Phoenix", the solemn "Interrogation" as well as the awesome "Drowning". On the whole this is sweet elegance with roses as opposed to a dirty field with a empty grave awaiting an occupant. 

 https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://aphonicthrenodydoom.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-hatred-atmospheric-death-doom-metal

 

NOCTU - Gelidae Mortis Imago review

NOCTU - Gelidae Mortis Imago 

Transcending Obscurity Records




Considering the present state of current events worldwide this guy is definitely jumping for joy. NOCTU is an Italian one man funeral doom project by multi-instrumentalist Noctu. He's been involved with a few other acts but for the past five years he's devoted much to his eponymous named act. He's also from the Lombardy region of Italy. Now if you keep in mind that his region of Italy was severely hit by the Wuhan virus. Then you can understand why I think this release should be the soundtrack of what they went through.


Gelidae Mortis Imago is the second full length by NOCTU. I'm familiar with the debut, Illuminandi - Esoterica illuminazione ermetica, from 2017. But this one here is a piece of beauty and brilliance. Pardon my lack of name dropping classic composers of the morose variety. But I believe Noctu has not only channeled the macabre as well as grandiose style of a classic composition. From the extreme metal side of things as far as the genre goes this is one of the greatest works you'll ever hear.

Obviously Gelidae Mortis Imago will not be for everyone. It's over an hour's worth of music separated into six tracks. There are basically three main compositions with some filler cuts. It's on these main compositions where Noctu's use of the musical elements fall into a morbid effect. The keyboards are used as melancholy melodic foreground to some point. Other times it's a ghastly horrific atmosphere being laid out. Even greater is when an eerie piano pings it's way upon your psyche.


As far as the guitars go, at times they strain under the weight of intense agony. Haunting riffs perpetuate while the tremolo picked ones lay waste to torturous obsessions. The capstone comes with Noctu's apparition whispered vocals. A tortured spirit he is not. Think more like the warnings and threats of a demi-god before it's conquest.


This release is all about three basic elements which are ambient, haunting and foreboding. There's just this amazing quality and affirmation to blast it as loudly as possible. It's a 2020 version of "Bring Out Your Dead". It's a cinematic soundtrack to our modern day plague minus the cable news theatrics and politicizing. It's Bach in a disguise, check out it's composer below. This release is also the most memorable, and not in a great way, the soundtrack of our time. Nuff Said.


https://tometal.com/

https://noctuitaly.bandcamp.com/album/gelidae-mortis-imago-atmospheric-doom-metal

https://www.facebook.com/noctu.funeral.doom/

TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS - Dust of Aeons review

TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS - Dust of Aeons  

Transcending Obscurity Records




Here's a Italian / English four piece act whose tagline status is that of a super-group. The members of this band hail from such doom acts as PANTHEIST, APHONIC THRENODY and VOID OF SILENCE. Three bands I've never heard of and in light of this release I don't really care. What TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS have created here is truly epic and important to say the least. That's why to me it's more about standing on your own then what you bring to the table.


Yes epic is the correct term to use here especially when a band opens up their release with a 30 minute long cut. This is funeral doom at it's most auspicious and grandiose. I kinda wonder if it was just that song, "The Bunker of Life", which once completed then the band would be like OK we're done. But hey they added three shorter cuts as well.


All in all this release sets a mile marker on what we see as funeral doom. The songs challenge the listener in their craft. Granted it took a while to get into this release. "Babylon's Hanging Gardens" is minimalist at first but after a while you get the idea of atmospheric levelness verses tension. "Alexandria's Library" at a sixteen and a half minute running time seems to be the only true traditional funeral doom cut on here not marked with specific experimentation. "Greeting Mausolus' Tomb", the shorter track brings to mind contemplation as a spoken word eulogy is heard in the background of a sad soundtrack of grief and doom.


 Funeral doom is a sub-genre that is solely for cult purists. I admit to not being a huge fan. As I turn around to look at my bookcases full of CDs there's a small section devoted to this area of metal. There's around three dozen dinks stacked on that shelf and those titles are all the classics which I enjoy every once in a while. TOWARDS ATLANTIS LIGHTS has risen from obscurity to become this genre's leader in my not so humble opinion. 

https://tometal.com/

https://towardsatlantislights.bandcamp.com/album/dust-of-aeons-atmospheric-death-doom-metal

https://www.facebook.com/TowardsAtl/

FROWNING - Extinct review

FROWNING - Extinct

Black Lion Productions




This guy makes MOURNFUL CONGREGATION, EA and ESOTERIC sound like party bands. I mean this is just flat out miserable. The guy in question is Val Atra Niteris, who probably has a dark cloud hovering over where ever he goes. Val hails from Germany and if you're into German black metal, and frankly who isn't, then you might know him from his other projects like HEIMLEIDEN which released an evil little icicle last year titled Mysterium Melancholie on Winterwolf Records. Then there's AD CINEREM which has a few length of blackened doom out this year called Shadows of Doubt. 

While Val does spread the pain with all his other projects its this one where he's spent most of his time on over the years and not many years to speak of either. He started doing FROWNING (yeah what a perfect name) by himself in 2011 at the age of seventeen. He put out four singles that year. In 2014 he released Funeral Impressions his first one hour opus to funeral bliss. This latest one follows suit with another full hour's worth purgatory imprisonment in five cuts. The sound is heavy as well as slow allowing the atmosphere to linger on well beyond decency. On "Veiled in Fog" Val slowly picks the guitar strings to create an almost church bell chime probably to call out the dead. On the over twenty minute "Buried Deep" there's a funeral parlor-like keyboard interlude which bleeds into the excruciatingly slow dense guitars. Val changes from cavernous vocals to background chants. There's more but I'll leave it there.

What Val has created here on Extinct is far from reinventing the funeral doom genre. It's more like giving it a good creative shot in the arm. He takes it to levels not yet explored but deeply at home with the style. His previous works were just hints at greatness. Extinct is a masterpiece in funeral doom.


https://www.blacklion.nu/store/

https://frowning.bandcamp.com/album/extinct

https://www.facebook.com/frowning.band