Review FUNERAL ‘Praesentialis in Aeternum‘

If the name of a band is Funeral I don’t think that anybody expects happy sounds. In contrary. Funeral, hailing from Drammen, Norway, is into slower pace metal with a dark vibe that resonates in each of the songs of their newest delivery.

Funeral started in early ‘90s and premiered with ‘Tragedies’ in 1995. In a way, tragedies are also what followed the band, not only as an album. Consistency when it comes to labels was not a give and the fact of two band members passing away in 2003 and 2006 was another hit in the face for the band.

Today it is founding member Anders Eek who is the driving force of Funeral. Inspired by bands like Black Sabbath, Funeral had the ambition to play slow and slower, funeral doom that characterizes the earlier days.

In the meantime, Funeral didn’t shift gears a lot, but focusses more on melancholy and grief than the pure doom-laden heaviness. This doesn’t mean that the songs gained tempo. Most of the songs are in snail-pace with strong riffs and lamenting clean vocals by Sindre Nedland.

Having mentioned vocals, the lyrics are in Norwegian, and it is a little booklet that explains the essence of the lyrics, texts that aren’t written by the band. It was a “personal friend” of Eek who took care about the lyrics, psychologist that didn’t need a lot of convincing to go for the challenge.

I realize that I didn’t mention the title of the album yet. ‘Praesentialis in Aeternum‘ is name of the album that lyrically addresses the work and thought of philosopher Emmanuel Kant.

‘Praesentialis in Aeternum‘ is an album that doesn’t put the bright sunrays into forefront. It’s the dark clouds of human beings that cover the soul and the album delivers the soundtrack. If you want to dive even deeper into the winter season blues, than this might be an album you should consider.