Thergothon
Fhtagn Nagh Yog-Sothoth

To understand what "funeral doom" was, it is necessary to listen and re-listen to the only official album published by Thergothon titled "Stream From The Heavens". However, I also consider it equally necessary to give a listen to their first demo, a demo bearing the following and unreadable title: "Fhtagn nagh Yog-Sothoth". An extremely dark and oppressive work the one I have analyzed, a work generated in the now prehistoric 1991 and on which no one would have bet a single cent.

Thergothon were nothing more than Niko Skorpio (vocals), Nikko Ruotsalainen (guitar and bass), and Jori Sjöroos (drums), a group of young Finns with few hopes who tried, at the time without much success, to further slow down the doom metal of bands like Candlemass, Paradise Lost, and Cathedral; combining these sounds with a very low and unusual "growl" (a growl derived from death metal) and the use of ghostly keyboards. The band was driven by the blackest and most dreary pessimism, as well as by literary suggestions of a clearly Lovecraftian nature, but believe me, their conception of doom was, and remains, one of the bleakest and most inhumane ever conceived in the history of more or less heavy metal.

The average duration of the tracks on "Fhtagn nagh Yog-Sothoth" is about 7 minutes, so you can well understand what kind of slow-motion giants we are talking about and what ominous sound monuments you are about to listen to.

A sepulchral and extremely poor production, exceedingly slow guitar riffs but loaded with a morbid charm, a drummer who seems afflicted by lethargy, the minimal and occasional sound of a keyboard and a fatalistic voice that recites strange phrases, phrases belonging to parallel worlds. All this is fantastic! All this is destined to enter the annals of doom history and, more generally, among those works that have made sound melancholy their distinctive trait.

The tracks contained in this demo are four and are all quite homogeneous.

"Elemental" is pure funeral doom. The very heavy guitars and the death metal growl dominate even though, at a certain point, a less gloomy riff than the others seems to open a very narrow glimmer of light and, with its arrival, we can also hear a clean, almost whispered voice. Subsequently, a muted keyboard begins to emit some lovely notes but, shortly, we return to the very slow and oppressive infernal turmoil.

"Evoken" is a track, if we may, even darker and suffocating than the previous one, a track once again played on the disarming slowness of guitars and drums and accompanied by the tremendous voice of Niko Skorpio. Also in this track, we can hear a slightly melodic riff but it is, as usual, a device that Thergothon uses to further embellish their compositions.

"Yet The Watchers Guard" is a track capable of evoking spectral visions of all kinds and sorts! Again disarming slowness, a sense of defeat, and contemplation of the cosmic void. The extremely sad and short "Yet The Watchers Guard" closes the dance, with a voice now narrated, now clean and finally inhuman.

A demo produced in some Finnish catacomb (did they ever exist over there?), which will delight the most melancholy doomster but also the lover of those minimal and dehumanizing sounds so fashionable in certain sectors of more experimental metal.