Funeralium - Funeralium Self Titled Album

Rating: 8.3

Country: France

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Total Rust Music /Ostra Records

Track list:
1. First Symptoms
2. Transcendance N°26
3. Funeralium
4. Let People Die
5. Light Crisis
6. Nearly The End

Funeralium - Funeralium

Marquis - Vocals & Guitar
Berserk - Guitar
Toxine - Bass
Ys - Drums

Formed by Marquis who along with Berserk also plays in French doom/death band Ataraxie [review], the doom music of Funeralium is a far painful cry from that of Ataraxie. They call their style ‘Ultra Sick Doom Metal' and they are absolutely correct. Their self-titled debut features nearly 80 minutes of slow, torturous doom that will alter your perception towards life if not drive you insane yourself.

With Bethlehem as their primary influence, you would know very well what to expect from Funeralium. At once your mind is transported to the mental asylum that you would naturally associate Bethlehem with. Their erratic and unpredictable behaviour convinced many about their disturbed mental condition and felt that their place in an asylum was justified. But in Funeralium's case, it seems doubtful as to whether they are actually mentally unbalanced or have been wrongly accused of that. This one can deduce from their music which is a direct outcome of their thought patterns. The logical manner in which their music progresses, the reaction of the members and the consequent creation and unravelling of the different moods, appear to be linked to the thought processes generated by a rational mind than an irrational one.

“First Symptoms” is a brief glimpse into the personified music of Funeralium, where 'he' is mourning and wailing inconsolably in his dingy cell. From then on, each song represents the anguishing, interminable early days of Funeralium's life in his new mental home. Not a great deal takes place in the second much longer song, “Transcendence No 26”, where he is mostly contemplating and trying hard to come to terms with the dreadful situation he has found himself in. Gut-wrenching growls and soul-piercing wails intensify the bleak and oppressive atmosphere created in this Thergothon-like crawl-paced song, so much that you as an external empathetic witness will find yourself feeling claustrophobic in your beloved bedroom, with the strange feeling of your door being locked from outside just when it's time for your much-awaited dinner. But for Funeralium it means being trapped indefinitely in a nightmare that he can never snap out of with his own will.

“Funeralium” is an important and most eventful 'day' in the life of Funeralium. At 17 minutes, it is one of those days that just don't seem to end. After a night's sleep, the new day brings out strong, unrestrained emotions from the band. Robust plodding and melancholic tunes that persist earlier on in the song are suggestive of early My Dying Bride, after which as though becoming alarmingly aware of his situation, the music steadily builds up, setting the stage for an outburst of emotions, for him to do something drastic. Around the 10 min mark the music lapses into silence however, and soon to the sweet light tunes you hear tormenting wails getting desperate by the minute, as if he is longingly reminiscing the fond moments with his girlfriend whom he is charged of murdering. At the 15-minute mark, the drums start beating at a brisk pace, marking the buildup of anger in him at the result of his incrimination. It takes little time for him to go berserk, to go sprinting off in the corridors of the lunatic asylum in the vain hope of escape, pushing people aside and smashing anything that gets in the way. Funeralium goes insane, death metal insane.

Understandably, “Light Crisis”, the next day of Funeralium is a subdued one and a very long one at that, lasting for 20 minutes. He is evidently humbled by his act that only validated his mental instability to the doctors in the asylum. Downtuned sludgy riffs and the plaintive ones that precede them are evocative of Worship and Esoteric. The tension-heightening tunes around the eight-minute mark signify Funeralium's pain getting unbearable and after his collapse, he reverts to playing soft, mournful and contemplative tunes. A breathtaking lead around the 17-minute mark takes form and floats around in his room like an apparition of his departed love. “Let People Die” is another long dirge similar to the previous one and its influences, featuring mellow tunes accompanied by the powerful albeit slow beating of the drums that sound like the hopeless banging of fists by Funeralium on the door of his locked cell. After doing that for quite a while, he gets emotional in a way that is suggestive of Deinonychus circa Mournment, and then resigns to his fate and slips back to the corner of his cell where he crouches and begins imagining his good old days. “Nearly The End” is a short and touching Bethlehem inspired instrumental, a relatively up-tempo one which conveys that Funeralium has eventually come to terms with his sentence which he rightfully deserved, and that he has made the asylum his new home.

Not just a one-dimensional band doling out sick, monotonous tunes to the desolate, Funeralium brilliantly create emotive moments within the prevalent madness, like a schizophrenic patient switching to his fanciful happy thoughts to escape from the insufferable reality of his present. Delve into the anguished, twisted mind of Funeralium; at worst, you will feel immensely grateful for your sane life.

September 21st, 2007