And all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves… Isn’t that a great statement to start with? Indeed, that was what I thought too…
It might seem odd, but releases on tape are on their revival. I do not care, because it brings back the primal grotesquery (read: melancholy) of the earliest years. The disadvantage, however, is the sound and the loss of quality after a while. But Midnite Collective, formerly Ear Splitters, are one of those labels that does not eschew releasing cassette-material.
On December 29th, Concreteweb posted a review for Ancient Altar, written by colleague Patrick, by the way.
Brings me to Funerary, a very young band that was able to perform live on stage with the likes of Ash Borer, Amarok, Lycus, Samothrace, Hell and many others – pretty impressive for being so young… They recorded Starless Aeon at Audio Confusion Studios, and had the material mastered at the Earhammer Studio with Greg Wilkinson.
Starless Aeon lasts for thirty four minutes and sounds like a sledgehammer brutally caressing your skull. Once again, and hereby I mean that it sounds like some ‘trend’ lately, it is a mixture of massive (Funeral) Doom and Sludge, with elements from Post-Hardcore and Black Metal, but once again too, the quality is of an exceptional high level. The five lengthy compositions are enormously varying (the speed, for example, varies from very slow to even slower, up to oh so sloooowww…), and because of the dissonant, little chaotic structures and the extremely obscure atmosphere, it must hold the attention of the dark-minded ones amongst us. And with ‘obscure atmosphere’, I would like to mention the second and third track (somewhat a Siamese twin), Atonement / Beneath The Black Veil: how oppressing and asphyxiating this is… I truly have never experienced such a funereal performance in combination with quasi-dreamlike spheres of esotery. Tribal and ritual it is, penetrating yet caressing, disturbing but revealing so much… I also appreciate the rawness of the execution; I’m not sure, but this must have been registered in a live setting to create that organic sound. And oh yes, the (short) title track is a hypnotic piece of ominous Ambient / Drone, which totally fits to the morbid album in general.
2014 is a top-year for bleak and dark Drone / Sludge / Funeral Doom / Black majesty (in a couple of days I will review the Mudbath-album Corrado Zeller, so expect more of this sonic beauty to come…), and with Funerary we might have a top-act in all its glory!