The Funeral Doom Metal Thread

I am long due an update to my top ten funeral doom releases, so let's go:

1. Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence (2019)

2. Evoken - Quietus (2001)

3. Ahab - The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006)

4.Bismuth - The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef (2018)

5. Tyranny - Tides of Awakening (2005)

6. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017)

7. Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale (2008)

8. Ataraxie - Le déclin (2024)

9. Skepticism - Lead and Aether (1997)

10. Colosseum - Chapter 2: Numquam (2009)

#1 & #2 have swapped places from last time, as have #4 & #5. Ataraxie's latest, "Le déclin", swooping in has seen Worship's "Last Tape Before Doomsday" drop out of the ten.

Mournful Congregation - "Weeping" demo (1994)

This early funeral doom demo absolutely blew me away when I first purchased it from the band back at the time of release & it still marks the high point for the entire subgenre as far as I'm concerned. I was tape trading with these Adelaide dudes at the time & found it almost impossible to believe that this material was coming from a few kids in such an unlikely location. "Weeping" is the very definition of doom, combining the incredible harmonies of early Anathema & Cathedral with the deeper & even more depressive atmospherics of Thergothon & Skepticism. The minimal production is perfectly suited to the material with the down-tuned guitar tones of Damon Good (Cauldron Black Ram/Martire/Misery's Omen/StarGazer/VoidCeremony) & Ben Petch allowing some utterly breath-taking twin-guitar doom riffs to reverberate throughout your body. The performances aren't perfect & the transitions could still do with some work but the quality in the song-writing is nothing short of incredible & is easily able to overcome those minor flaws with the deep death growls of Nick Hansen beautifully portraying the pain in the lyrics. I'm sure you all know that I rarely gush this hard but "Weeping" is honestly a top ten metal release for me personally & is one of the most rewarding underground gems you'll ever find. If you can't deal with the plodding tempos of most funeral doom metal then I'd steer well clear of this one though. It's as sombre & downtrodden as they come.

For fans of Ahab, Thergothon & Skepticism.

5/5

Here's my adjusted Top Ten Funeral Doom Metal Releases of All Time list:

01. Mournful Congregation - "Weeping" demo (1994)

02. Esoteric - "The Maniacal Vale" (2008)

03. Esoteric – “Paragon of Dissonance” (2011)

04. Shape of Despair - "Monotony Fields" (2015)

05. Esoteric – “Metamorphogenesis” (1999)

06. Esoteric - "A Pyrrhic Existence" (2019)

07. Ahab - "The Call of The Wretched Sea" (2006)

08. Esoteric - "The Pernicious Enigma" (1997)

09. Evoken – “Atra Mors” (2012)

10. The Howling Void – “Shadows Over The Cosmos” (2010)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/132

Thergothon - "Stream From The Heavens" (1994)

Unlike most fans of funeral doom metal, I was lucky enough to have encountered the birth of the subgenre in real time, having developed a strong fascination with the slowest extreme metal moments through bands like Winter & diSEMBOWELMENT during the early 1990's & then picking up Thergothon's early works in my quest for ever more downtrodden & disparaging forms of doom metal. It's fair to say that "Stream From The Heavens" had a noticeable effect on me when I picked it up through my tape trading network around the time of release too & it worked to further enhance my already insatiable hunger for this type of music. In fact, I can vividsly recall feeling some level of justification upon first encountering Thergothin because I'd been telling myself that slowing things down to the lowest tempos imaginable would work & I'd now found that it did. That's not to say that I've ever felt that Thergothon's sole full-length was a classic release though because it's not. There are simply too many flaws with it to warrant those sort of claims & the subgenre has gone on to much greater heights since, even later in 1994 when Mournful Congregation would release their "Weeping" demo which was heavily inspired by the early Finnish works & would take things up a good couple of notches from what you'll find here. The production job isn't great & it would have been nice if the Fins could have kept the higher register guitar parts in tune with each other. The clean vocals can be a bit flat & dreary too while those croaky death growls aren't always brilliant & the keyboards & acoustic guitars can sound a bit naff at times. You can't deny the unique atmosphere Thergothon manage to build though & those crushingly heavy doom riffs still reverberate through my headphones with great power & majesty. There's no doubt that you have to hear this one if you have even a passing interest in funeral doom metal.

For fans of Skepticism, Mournful Congregation & Evoken.

4/5

Current Top 10 Funeral Doom Metal albums, obviously subject to changes. There's not a whole lot between this 10 and the others just below.

1. Esoteric – Metamorphogenesis (1999)

2. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017)

3. Evoken - A Caress of the Void (2007)

4. Ahab - The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006)

5. Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale (2008)

6. Bell Witch - Four Phantoms (2015)

7. Ataraxie - Le déclin (2024)

8. Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens (1994)

9. Evoken - Antithesis of Light (2005)

10. Mournful Congregation - The Incubus of Karma (2018)

Ennui - "Qroba" (2026)

I have been making more of a conscious effort to follow up on some of the tracks from the site playlists that jump out at me each month and that is how I ended up in front of the latest release from Georgian (as in the country not the period of English history) funeral doomsters, Ennui. The word Qroba is a Georgian word meaning “vanishment” or a “fading of presence”, representing the moment light withdraws to leave space for something colder and final. Symbolic of the temporary dissolution of the band themselves, the album explores the inevitability of the end. In short, classic funeral doom fare. With song titles such as ‘Mokvda Mze.’ (which translates to ‘The Sun Has Died’) and ‘Becoming A Void’, Ennui leaves the listener in no doubt that if they are seeking positivity, they are in the wrong place.

The band name itself is the French word for “boredom”, which I find to be particularly ironic given there is no element of that emotional state present throughout my experience of Qroba. I am starting to realise that funeral doom may well be my second favourite sub-genre of The Fallen, pushing sludge for that top spot as time goes on. In fact, I heard this record on the same day as the new EP from Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, and I prefer Qroba in a comparison of the two releases. Everything I want to hear on a funeral doom album is present on this album. Well, apart from the panduri, a traditional three-stringed Georgian instrument that I have never heard of until today. Otherwise, there are dense keys and suitably desolate atmospheres being created around them, alongside punishing riffs and the deep rumble of bass and guttural vocals too boot. All the while the drums functionally add percussive markers in the background. You could forget they are there at all on some occasions, which is more testimony to the quality of everything that’s going on around them as opposed to any fault with the performance or mix even.

I do get the occasional flourish of hope in the music, which is not something I want to hear too often in my funeral doom. Here, I think it stays just the right side of providing balance, just like the prog-reminiscent guitars around the halfway point of ‘Becoming Void’ also add a touch of the unexpected. The melancholic lead work here, which is delivered via long, drawn-out notes, almost tells its own story outside of the vocals themselves. When you factor in those keys, you soon find yourself in some cosmic death trance. If I close my eyes to this track, I just see endless space, with the odd burst of light, or the odd colour of gases that I am floating through. Listening to Qroba soon becomes a very immersive experience for me.

With over an hour of music to listen to here, I do think that Qroba is a record that has a certain place and time to be properly experienced. This is not background music. For me, if you are not sat still with this record playing, you are doing it, and yourself an injustice. It is a record that demands to be experienced as opposed to simply being listened to. From an arrangement perspective, it sounds to me like this has been very carefully put together. Tracks develop as opposed to just progressing. Given the theme of the album, it is quite easy to see this album as a soundtrack to the slow destruction of life as we know it. When that day comes, I will have this on my headphones.

4.5/5