Funeral doom. If you’ve been a reader of the site for a while, you know that I am a fanatic when it comes to doom music, and I have done several reviews of doom albums, mainly the funeral style or funeral-related. What can I say, it’s a specialty. When I first heard this album, from the opening notes I knew it was funeral doom. Yet, my initial reaction to this album was not one of amazement or, let’s say delight for a lack of a better word, but more like disappointment and, again for the lack of a better word, betrayal. That has led this album to mediocrity in my eyes. But, as I gave the album a few more listens and learned the story and reason behind the album, my heart didn’t want to give this album that mediocre rating. In the end, as a reviewer, I have to stick with my instincts and go with the mediocre rating it unfortunately deserves.

The first thing that I noticed about the album was the vocals. There’s something about the tone of them that don’t fit the music or lyrics most of the time. They are done in a very, very deep voice, but not a growl as in most funeral doom. It’s an unfortunate hit-and-miss affair with the vocals, and I say unfortunate because the lyrics are very poetic. Musically, at its heart, this is the average funeral doom album. Not much for originality. Though, there is one song that once I really listened to it, I couldn’t stop listening to it. “Weary and Wretched” is an amazing song, the only one on the album that I feel that the vocal tone really fits both the lyrics and music perfectly. The melody and feel of the song is perfect, one of both sadness and greatness. The opener, “Gravdans,” also sticks out from the rest with its melodies and the way the vocals intertwine with the music.* After those two songs, it goes into a three minute interlude that hurts the pace of the album (kind of hard to do that with funeral doom, but it is possible), two run-of-the-mill funeral doom songs (\"Morphia\" and \"Now That I Die\"), and then another out of place three minute interlude. Granted, the second of those final two songs is good, it’s just nothing special or something that catches me. The other one feels like it's the same riff over and over for seven minutes. Another thing that hurts those two songs is that they sound like they were not recorded at the same time as the prior two, and since they were the two done on their two song demo, it makes me think that they just mastered the demo and put it on the album. Not a good idea in my honest opinion, as you can tell that they were not mixed at the same time. The one thing the band has going for them is the musicianship. Very tight, and from what I know of their main band (Funeral from Norway, and some members are also in Paradigma), they have the talent. It unfortunately doesn’t show here.

In the end, this album would have been better as a two-song EP, as “Gravdans” and “Weary and Wretched” are really the only truly damn good songs on this release. So, as for the album, I say try to hear it before you buy it. As for the story behind the album, I’ll let you look it up yourself and you feel what you want to about the album. Just from their other bands, I know they could have done much better.

NOTE: The composition rating is an overall average, as \"Gravdans\" and \"Weary and Wretched\" are amazingly written and performed, but the rest of the album is, well, not, to say the least.

*-The only thing I don’t like is the fact I can’t understand the lyrics because they are in Norwegian, which is ok, I just wish I knew what he was talking about.

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]