Month: January 2021

Genre: Death Metal | Label: Cyclone Records
Location: Clifton, NJ| Listen: Bandcamp

If you were a death metal fan in the 2000’s, there’s a good chance you stumbled upon New Jersey’s Funebrarum. This American death metal group eschewed all modern death metal trends of that decade – you wouldn’t be labeling this as brutal or technical death metal, nor was it melodic like many of their Swedish counterparts. Instead, Funebrarum were at the forefront of a wave of bands that were playing dark and cavernous death metal with its influences in many early 90’s bands. As the decade closed, Funebrarum released their sophomore album in 2009, “The Sleep of Morbid Dreams,” which has certainly stood the test of time all these years later.

Funebrarum is from New Jersey, so it’s pretty easy to attribute their sound to the NYDM scene, and to a point that’s accurate. It is comparably dark to bands like Incantation, utilizing doom metal sections and inhumanly low vocals. However, it is Finnish death metal that seems to be the primary influence on “The Sleep of Morbid Dreams,” as they share a common sense of dark melody, rhythmic feels, and knack for hooks with their Finnish counterparts. It’s easy to hear bands like Abhorrence, Convulse, Disgrace, and many others in these low tuned riffs. Often, they’ll utilize an evil sounding melody that’s over a fairly simple chord progression, and the kind of scales they use really relate it back to these Finnish greats. Hell, there’s even a quirky, Demilich like riff before the doom part later in “Beyond Recognition.”

Among many of the bands playing cavernous death metal around this time, Funebrarum certainly had a knack for having hooks in their songs, and they would do this by pairing a riff with plenty of identity, with a simple repeated vocal pattern. “Grave Reaper,” a track from a previous split with Interment, is a fan favourite due to its caveman bounce and recognizable chorus. Meanwhile, other songs will pair these absolutely flesh ripping tremolo riffs that carve out infectious patterns with yet another catchy vocal pattern. “Incineration of Mortal Flesh” is a prime example of this, you won’t miss the title of the track if you didn’t read it before hand. Likewise, the epic track “Nex Monumentum” gets away with doing this on a couple different parts, and they both really hit that sweet spot of where death metal should hit.

While a lot of these low tuned, cavernous death metal bands of this time would purposely present their music with raw or murky production, this not the case with Funebrarum. This is by no means a “modern” sounding recording, as there are no typewriter drums to be heard here. That being said, it is a fairly clear recording, and despite the low tuning, it’s not hard to distinguish the powerful bass and the heavy guitars from one another. The kick drums are present without being distracting, and the the toms are really in your face too. There’s some nice production touches like the keys in “Nex Monumentum” which add to that gloomy Finnish atmosphere even more. Overall, this is a fantastic sounding record that emphasizes the power of the riffs and performances without sucking the life out of it or making it too murky.

It’s been a dozen years since “The Sleep of Morbid Dreams” came out, and further established Funebrarum as one of the premiere bands in this era of death metal. By taking a huge amount of Finnish death metal influence and some remnants of NYDM, this record has a sound that just hits right when it comes to death metal. Many fans, myself included, have been anxiously awaiting the follow up record, as the few shorter releases they’ve released in the meantime have only heightened the anticipation. As such, there’s no better time to give this record another listen if you haven’t in a while, and I’m sure you’ll find it’ll set the bar pretty high for the follow up record that’s due out this year.

90%

Genre: Death Metal | Label: Nuclear War Now
Location: Melbourne, Australia| Listen: Bandcamp

The trajectory of death metal has taken many twists and turns over the years, with many off-shots becoming popular, while other styles dying and later being revitalized. Back in the mid 2000s, you could find many “death” metal bands pushing the style further into melodic, technical, or brutal realms. The more straightforward and “pure” sounding death metal bands either died off or just weren’t as prominent anymore. Not to say it was entirely dead, as bands like Incantation never strayed too far from their roots, but it sure felt like its heyday was over. This was soon to change later in the decade, as a lot of new bands started popping up that were highly influenced by the likes of the previously mentioned Incantation, focusing on dark and cavernous atmospheres. Once such band from Australia, Ignivomous, was at the forefront of this resurgence, and their debut album has held up extremely well over time.

“Death Transmutation” had a decent amount of hype before it came out. Ignivomous had previously released a demo to critical acclaim in the underground, and they dropped a 7″ the year before the album. Needless to say, the hype was well deserved, as not only does it capture that brooding atmosphere that is so often associated with the “caverncore” bands that started popping up at this time, but the focus of quality riffs is really what made Ignivomous worth coming back to time and time again. A high level of musicality is executed here, with a variety of riffs and feels. Take the title track, for example – a doom laden mid section (complete with the expected pinch harmonics) gives way to some layered guitars that create a feeling of spiraling into the abyss as they interact with each other.

Of course, the main appeal of death metal isn’t just how heavy it is, because ripping tremolo riffs at high speeds is just as crucial. “Noneuclidean Maelstrom,” for example, displays these riffs against a variety of drum beats, which are further varied to keep the songs from being monotonous. Chris Broadway employs a jackhammer style of blastbeats kind of like Suffocation, as opposed to the scissor blast that you’d hear in Incantation. He does a lot of double kick beats too while avoiding dragging things out, such as during the solo section in “The World Upon Nihil.” Again, songs like this employ some dual guitar work to create some tension and depth to the song. The band originally featured two guitarists, but one quit before the album, so Sean Hinds essentially pulls double duty by playing both parts.

One of the stand out features of “Death Transmutation” (and Ignivomous’ discography in general) is its disdain for modern production. This recording feels really honest – there’s not a lot of emphasis on clicky drums, the guitars have a natural air to them, and nothing seems like it’s been overly squashed. Don’t confuse this for an amateur recording – they seem to have been conscious enough to EQ out the undesirable elements that any professional would normally take care of, such as the hollow boxy tones that are usually found in the drums. You can still hear the kicks and everything, but it just sounds very natural, as if the band consciously wanted to defy the overly clinical sound that plagued so many brutal and technical death metal bands throughout the decade.  Sometimes I wish the toms had a little more boom to them, but it’s by no means a deal breaker.

After all these years, I still find “Death Transmutation” just as enjoyable as I did when it first came out. Hell, maybe I like it even more now, because it stands as a cut above a lot of other cavernous death metal bands that were coming out at the same time, and that can be directly attributed to the strength of the music itself. Between the ripping fast tremolo riffs and doom sections, Ignivomous keeps a delicate balance in their songs, and the more raw approach to production gives it a suffocating atmosphere that is perfectly suited for evil death metal. I sometimes find myself forgetting I own this album because I have to store it with my 7″ records due to the extra large booklet, but whenever I do remember to bust this one out, the inner Incantation fanboy in me is completely satisfied. “Caverncore” often gets mentioned with an eye roll when discussing modern death metal, but I assure any curious readers that this album has stood up against the test of time and should be welcomed into any death metal fan’s collection.

88%

Genre: Death/Thrash Metal | Label: JL America
Location: Burlington, NJ| Listen: YouTube

From the depths of New Jersey comes Nokturnel, a ripping fast death metal band that has ties to many other names in the death metal underground. Namely, it features Tom Stevens, who had been involved in death metal’s formative years since 1985 with the band Savage Death (which also featured drummer Erik Young). Eight years after starting his journey of pushing the extreme, Stevens’ finally released a full length with Nokturnel in 1993, entitled “Nothing but Hatred.” Pure speed and brutality take the forefront here, but they are steered by an equally wild force of creativity.

Everything is cranked to 11 on this record, and the songs are always verging into higher speeds as they develop. Stevens’ riffs are varied and pack a punch, as he plays lightning fast power chords that jump around along the fret board, but also incorporates quite a lot of quirky ideas. Much like fellow mid-Atlantic death metallers Deceased, Nokturnel has a knack for incorporating Voivod influenced sections throughout their songs. One of the best examples of this are the dissonant chords and jagged rhythms in the track “Global Suicide.” That song also features an excellent thrash break at the end that also reminds me of Deceased, and you could make the case that fans of “Luck of the Corpse” will find a lot to like about “Nothing but Hatred.”

Unlike Deceased, Nokturnel eschews heavy metal melody for much more chaotic lead playing. Quite honestly, Tom Stevens’ guitar playing is the highlight and overall driving force of this record. Much like his riffing, his lead playing is frantic and relentless. His solos are like a more virtuoso version of Slayer, as they’re pretty chromatic, but he employs incredibly smooth execution of tapping, sweeping, and even tremolo bar abuse. For a lack of a better term, Stevens is just metal as fuck on this record, and his bandmates are equally as skilled and unhinged as he is. The rhythm section is extremely tight, performing at full speed, but still allowing room to breath and build when appropriate. The bass sometimes simplifies the riffs without any tremolo picking, giving a more solid sense of rhythm. Furthermore, there’s some start/stop sections that are performed with absolute precision among all the madness, or things like quick shots and other nuances that give these songs a little something extra.

I’ve always found the production of this record to always be a little odd, but as each track goes by, I start to warm up to its sound. I think it comes down to the fact that the vocals are just too loud, as things seem to sit really well during some of the extended instrumental passages. The bass has a subtle overdrive that adds a mean edge to it, but it still maintains low end warmth. Meanwhile, the drums are standard early 90’s death metal affair, with lots of smack on the kick drum, but it seems to have a nice balance as the snare and toms retain a good natural sound and dynamic. Many of the lead guitar sections emphasize the fact the band is a three piece, as there will be no rhythm guitar under it, but it doesn’t sound empty, as the rhythm section is able retain a full sound with busy playing.

Death/thrash and NYDM fans who haven’t heard this record should do themselves a favor and give it a listen. Although it has plenty in common with their fellow New Jersey death/thrash bands like Ripping Corpse and Revenant, it doesn’t have the slamming breakdowns of the former nor the extravagant Morbid Angel moments of the latter. What it does have is Voivoid-esque fretboard wizardry, and an insatiable thirst for over the top speed. It’s a shame this record hasn’t been re-released at any point – maybe the cover is just a little too ridiculous for its own good – but as far as I’m concerned, this is up there with the other classic death metal bands mentioned in this review.

84%