Funeral Of God are an Italian act that were formed in 2010 by Paolo ‘Odio’ Cerretini, also involved with extreme acts such as Mincer, In League With Satan, Glioblastoma, G.N.C. or Red Bible Black. Soon Paolo (bass and lead guitars, drum programming) got joined by Ukrainian artist Mariya Popyk. She’s especially known, I think, for her paintings / drawings, and the duo did record and release a first (untitled) demo in 2012; Paolo taking care of bass, lead / rhythms guitars and drum programming, and Mariya doing the keyboards and vocals. Very soon after they recruited Lorenzo Sgariboldi, and they did re-record the demo material, this time with Maryia doing the rhythm guitar parts too, and Lorenzo taking care of the bass parts (and Paolo focusing on the lead guitar parts and the programming). It resulted in their first album, …Of Doom And Despair, with the tracks from the 2012-demo and some new ones. Recently the band signed to Turkish label Merdümgidiz, which releases this first album. FYI: also the newest Funeral Of God effort (Walking Amongst The Graves) will see the light via this label (with label co-owner Emir Togrul participating too). In a couple of days / weeks / decades I will write and upload the review for that one too, but let’s now focus on …Of Doom And Despair.
…Of Doom And Despair lasts for fifty minutes, and opens with the intro Reflections On Endless Void, standing for a somewhat weird but intriguing Industrial-injected form of Ambient. The first ‘real’ track is Sliding In The Mouth Of Hell, and with the intro I had the feeling that this album could be something outstanding. Sliding In The Mouth Of Hell is a confirmation of this prophecy! It’s quite strange to experience, though mostly different from what we’re used to. Mariya’s voice is of an exceptionally weird and harsh kind, so sick / sickened / sickening, with that echoing effect and that buzzing sound. The drum computer too adds this material with something uncomfortable, for penetrating the whole with a mechanical and post-apocalyptic touch of destruction. It’s not really reinventing the scene, but still Funeral Of God come with a very characterising own approach. The variation in tempo and structure is necessary, but since it’s prominently present, it’s a surplus to conserve attraction and attention.
Fine are the additions like church bells or samples, the extremely doomy passages, the hints of hypnosis, the obscure, ritual and mystic atmosphere, the echoing voice aspects, the goatlordian acid, and the inherent feeling of discomfort / disturbance / discordance.
Remarkable but not all of a sudden, the newer compositions are little more guitar-oriented, but this surely will have to do with the fact that band leader Paolo nowadays rather focuses on the lead guitar aspects (cf. Mariya and Lorenzo taking over the background rhythm string part duties). But it isn’t but a detail, for the inherent and explicit nature of Funeral Of God’s performance remains quite the same.
The mainly slow creations mingle elements from ultimately raw Ritual / Occult Black Metal, evil Funeral Doom, extreme Blackened Morbid Death Metal and Noise - Death Industrial – Drone Dark Ambient stuff, reminding me of some symbiosis of Urna, Woods Of Belial, Gnaw Their Tongues, Ævangelist, Ancient Moon, Goatpsalm, Mordor (the Swiss one), Nashehrhum and Hoth, including hints of Necrophagia and Goatlord. The gruesome grimness of these comparisons get strengthened by the extreme, rough and poisonous production, dry as desert sand, raped and tortured… Besides, the mechanical suppression works disturbing, adding even more dissonance and chaos to the frenzy and psychosis. It’s a heavily digestible album, …Of Doom And Despair, and not every human soul will enjoy the beauty of this creation. But you must give it a try if you like any of higher mentioned styles of bands / projects!