Funeral
As The Light Does The Shadow

I remember in 2006, upon the release of "From These Wounds," I read in various places that it would be the artistic epigraph of the worthy and emblematic career of my beloved Funeral (doomsters not from the elegiac Finland but from the harsher Norway, active since distant 1993, and with tenacity and perseverance that I greatly envy, often touched by the breath of the Leveler...when they say "in nomen omen").  

Well (so to speak, obviously...), with the painful vibrations of that immense and tragic release still resonating in my ears and heart, with my eyes sewn shut by the barbed wire of its bare and minimal cover, and climbing out of the chasm into which "From These Wounds" had thrown me like a slow oblivion; a few weeks ago I realized (guiltily late) that in 2008 Audioglobe had released "As The Light Does The Shadow", a new effort by Funeral. Needless to say, I rushed to get the original album, full of hope and trust...like a child unaware that deceit and bad faith are always lurking around the corner! So I want to say it clearly: the disappointment from the first listen was strong, and the impression that this album had very little to do with the band's glorious past was significant.

I don't want to make a purist or non-purist argument about Doom (also because the group in question had known how to range well over the years from the ferocity of early days to the decadence -female vocals included- of other works) but fishing through the ten songs that make up "ATLDTS", perhaps excluding only "The Elusive Light", the tracks seem to decisively steer towards a work of craftsmanship rather than a birth of Destiny. Fault of elementary keyboard scores, where guitars stop and start in a square and martial manner, yes, but without that elegance of inlay and carving that had distinguished their work in "FTW". It's the fault of Frodo Forsmo's low and recitative clean voice, no longer poignant and evocative but at times even sloppy and boring! The tempos of the songs are very slow, true, but nowadays that's not enough.

The production is robust, but the damage is done anyway, because "As The Light Does The Shadow" is an uninspired, grinding, and weakly prolix album, and the presence of a special guest in "In The Fanthoms Of Wit And Reason," Robert Lowe (Candlemass, Solitude Aeternus), unfortunately, heavily accentuates the sensation of a product without head or tail. The absence of Christian Loos is felt, that's it.

As far as I'm concerned, R.I.P.