Funeral doom metal from Sweden, complete discography released between 2002-2010.
Just as I thought an album couldn't get more depressive than Forgotten Tomb's 'Love's Burial Ground', I find this gem from The Funeral Orchestra, and if you haven't guessed already, this band plays Funeral Doom. This is incredibly depressive, but also mysterious. Instrumentals like 'Black Orbit' create a different atmosphere which is rarely felt in a Funeral Doom album.
Sargon was complaning that the demo was too short (21 minutes), but the listener is satisfied after listening to this album, since it's over an hour long (67 minutes to be exact). The 3 songs from 'We Are The End' are there (WATE, Black Orbit and Apocalyptic Trance), and the other 46 minutes of new material on this album are simply breathtakingly sad. 'Worship' is a new attempt at making something depressive. It starts off with a little guitar drone, then around a minute an organ kicks and we hear a girl crying. It made me picture a girl crying in an church. The album ends with a live version of Church of TFO. The sound quality is great, especially for a live song, but it's not very enjoyable since I hear people talking in the back for most of the track. Still, this song proves that TFO can be a good band both in studio and on stage.
Overall, if you enjoyed the depressive music of bands such as Shape of Despair or Forgotten Tomb, grab this, but keep in mind there are no Black Metal elements like in Forgotten Tomb. Filled with doomy, slow and depressive riffs, this album should keep Funeral Doom fans coming back for more.
2002 Slow Shalt Be The Whole Of The Law (Demo) - 256k
2003 We Are The End (Demo) - 192k
2003 Feeding The Abyss - 320k
2008 ODO EP - Vbr
2010 The Northern Lights II (Split) - 320k
We Are The End (Demo) Review:
This was the second demo released by The Funeral Orchestra before their deal with Aftermath music and the release of their full-length album "Feeding The Abyss". From the sound of things, I am going to have to get a hold of that one, as this is some excellent Doom. This was not actually released by Aftermath, but was rather a limited demo of only 56 copies, so bootleg is pretty much the only way to get one of these. I'm just listing Aftermath Music as their label because that's their current roost, and also as a shout-out to my bud Haavard Holm.
The four musicians involved here are nameless, calling themselves "Priest 1", "Priest 2" etc. We know one of them is Nicklas Rudolfsson of the awesome Runemagick – I'd guess Priest 1, as the vocals sound quite a bit like him. His songwriting style is also in evidence, as this is very similar to Runemagick's latest release "Envenom" – very slow and doomy stuff with excellent riffs. "Apocalyptic Trance Ritual" is the best song, with a hypnotic riff that justifies the title entirely. But all three of these songs are good, if not quite as memorable as the first.
The only place I have to dock any points here is really the short length, though you do get over 20 minutes out of three songs. As this was never really intended for wide release I suppose I can't fault them for that. This does just what a demo is supposed to do: it makes you want to hear more. So in that regard, "We Are The End" is a cool little underground doom jewel.
/ XBTT (1) by Dejavu