Cemetery Fog are a very young band from Finland, originally consisting of V. Kettunen (d), J. Filppu (v, g), and J. Rantala (g). After the demo tapes Journey To Hell and Sepulchral Full Moon, the trio (J. Rantala left in mean time, and the band recently recruited bass player J. Peltonen) returned with a third demonstrational cassette recording, Shadows from The Cemetery, which has a total running time of about twenty three minutes. It was originally self-released, but now it will get a proper distribution since Cemetery Fog signed to one of my favourite labels, Germany’s Iron Bonehead Productions.
With Shadows From The Cemetery, Cemetery Fog bring a putrid, nasty form of slightly retro-laden Death Metal in the ‘Metal of Death’-vein, i.e. morbid, swampy and uncompromising. This is the purest essence of this kind of Aural Art, denying any trend, escaping from progression, spitting hatred on commerciality. The demo has a very darkened approach, partly caused by the rough, anti-clean production (though it makes the drums, for example, sound like a tin can, unfortunately), but the guitar lines especially are top-notch. When it comes to the tempo, well, it balances in between the extremes of speed and doom, but the major part is focused on the latter, a slow, haunting and eerie march-forward. I also need to mention the few atmospheric keyboard lines and / or (semi-) acoustic intermezzos, covering the whole even more in a suffocative nebula and impenetrable fog. The simplicity of the tracks – and I do not mention this in a denigrating or negative manner! – is excellently elaborated, for this kind of material may not be arranged by any form of trendy modernism. The purest essence of the Old School gets maintained right here. And 1) for the tracks are above average, 2) for the sound perfectly fits to the graveyard-anthems, and 3) for there is such ingenious cohesion in between the tracks yet with exclusion of ‘sounding-all-the-same’, I cannot but embracing happiness; happiness of the most sarcastically unhappy kind, evidently…
…awaiting a ‘professional’ studio full length… Until then, I salute you…
For fans of: Autopsy, Grave Miasma, Incantation, very early Samael or Incriminated.