Band: Funebrarum
Title: The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams
Label: Cyclone Empire Records
Distribution: Sure Shot Worx
Release date: 17/04/2009
Review: CD

The New York / New Jersey-based formation Funebrarum exists since last century, but The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams isn’t but their second full length studio recording, after the 2002-release Beneath The Columns Of Abandoned Gods (re-released last year on vinyl). In mean time, the band also released a 7”EP in 2003, called Dormant Hallucination, and a split with Interment, Conjuration Of The Sepulchral (2007). The band, consisting of members that are / were also involved with, for example, Evoken, Abazagorath, Abysmal Gates, Assück or Taste Of Fear, entered the Cyclone Sound Studio (Brooklyn, NY) with producer Don Fury, of Helmet / Agnostic Front / Quicksand-fame.
The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams stands for universal old school Death Metal. And even though the ‘old school’ seems to be(come) very ‘popular’ again lately, this monumental album defines a morbid and gargantuan approach of Old School. The USDM-elements do play an important part within Funebrarum’s expression of anger and grimness - think Morbid Angel, Autopsy, Suffocation, Nile, Incantation etc - but there’s more. Sometimes, my mind dwells towards Bolt Thrower (listen to Among The Exiled and you know what I mean), a few times I must think about the Swedish scene (Unleashed, Grave, Carnage amongst others), yet still the band maintains its own raison d’être. The album contains many layers, which covers the album within a superior ‘deepness’. The tempo varies a lot, from pretty slow or mid-tempo over fast to blasting, and the songs are rather varying from each other too. Yet every single one is of a high quality. And last but not least: the sound is perfect: abysmal, ominous and massive at the same time.

90/100

Ivan Tibos.