Funeral doom

Funeral doom
Stylistic origins	Death-doom dirge music
Cultural origins	Mid-1990s, Finland
Typical instruments	Electric guitar bass guitar Electronic keyboard drums vocals
Regional scenes
Finland Russia
Other topics
Death metal Doom metal

Funeral doom is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that crosses death-doom with dirge music. Low-tuned guitars, death growls, instruments that emulate Pipe organ sounds and ponderous pace are typical traits of this style.

History

An offshoot of death-doom, the genre was mostly inspired by the work of Autopsy, Winter, Cathedral and early Paradise Lost. Funeral doom truly came into being in the mid-1990s, especially Finland. Thergothon is frequently pointed out as the progenitor of the genre, alongside Skepticism and Unholy. Outside Scandinavia, the lines between death-doom and funeral doom pioneers were less clear cut. diSEMBOWELMENT, from Australia, Birmingham-based Esoteric, and American act Evoken are examples.

With the turn of the millenium came releases of newer bands, such as Shape of Despair, Mournful Congregation, the "Nautik Doom" group Ahab and one-man-projects Nortt and Doom:VS. Funeral doom scenes cropped up over the world, such as the one in Russia. The Solitude Productions label, for example, became a major force in shaping it's future. Like no metal subgenre before it, the internet boom greatly helped funeral doom reach new fans. By the 2010s, funeral doom reached into metal's mainstream.

Another sign of funeral doom's increasing status was Peaceville's move to buy the rights of Avantgarde Music's back catalogue. Responsible for launching the careers of Autopsy, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, Peaceville was the major player in shaping what became known as death-doom. This now meant that Peaceville had a significant stake in funeral doom's history: it owned all of Thergothon's and Unholy's discography, along with two Evoken albums.

Although it has a substantial following, funeral doom has also it's share of criticism. Chronicles of Chaos co-editor Pedro Azevedo argued that, to the average listener, funeral doom might sound "boring and repetitive". Ciarán Tracey, in an article for Terrorizer, acknowledged that the increasing popularity of funeral doom also meant that it now had it's "share of hangers-on and can act as a repository for pseudo-literary teen poetry and artless abstraction, so a certain critical scrutiny has become necessary."

Musical style

Coc's Azevedo described funeral doom's core sound as a mix of "downtuned guitars, ponderous drumming, church organs and cavernous death vox" done at an "extremely slow" pace. Though it kept death metal's low-tuning and death growls, funeral doom eschewed most it's complex song structures and rapid tempo changes in a favor of a minimalist approach and slower tempos. Depending on the band, it keeps some genre-specific characteristics of death-doom, such as violins and female vocals. Some background elements, such as church bells, keyboards or synthesizers, are many a time part of funeral doom's overall sound, adding a "dreamlike" quality to what is often described as a heavy and burdensome atmosphere.

Funeral doom's name has two distinct genealogies. One source claimed it was a namesake of Norway's death-doom outfit Funeral. It might have come, too, from Skepticism's pipe organ-like keyboard timbre, which reminded listeners of funeral music. Keyboardist Eero Pöyry said that "I position myself as a church organ player in a metal band". Furthermore, Pöyry explained that, at the time,

Many bands were either using [keyboards] as background, almost like an effect, and others were using it like a second solo guitar, using keyboard solos and all that. Neither of those felt like ours. I kind of thought what a keyboard player in a metal band like this should be like. It should be like the organist in a church. In that lineup, the organ became much like what the second guitar would have been. The way to position it in the sound was church organ-like. Thinking through all the things you should do and not do… I started taking it in the organist direction instead of soloist direction [...]. It’s pretty much a church organ setup in a metal band as well.

Themes

Thematically, funeral doom avoided the "Peaceville Three"'s gothic sensibilities in favor of a more nihilistic world view, evoking a sense of emptiness and despair. Thanatology topics such as grief, loss and suicide are central to the style. Apart from that, thematic content varies widely. Thergothon's lyrics were inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Ahab notoriously wrote whole concept albums based on Herman Melville's classic Moby Dick. In turn, Esoteric experimented with a variety of psychotropic substances - LSD, magic mushrooms and cannabis - to explore the obscure recesses of the unconscious mind. Their dark take on psychedelia inspires music and words that resemble a soundtrack to a "bad trip".

Bibliography

• Ebner, Arne (25 July 2010). Ästhetik des Doom (PDF) (Bachelor) (in German). Macromedia University of Applied Sciences for Media and Communication – Cologne. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
• 'Harry' Hinchliffe, James (2006). "Funeral Doom/Drone Doom: Hearse Play". Terrorizer. 143. London: 44–45.
• 'Harry' Hinchliffe, James (2006). "Thergothon - 'Stream from the Heavens' (1993)". Terrorizer. 144. London: 54.
• Minton, James; Kelly, Kim; Selby, Jenn (2009). "Filth Parade". Terrorizer. 188. London: 56.
• Tracey, Ciarán (2006). "Doom/Death: United In Grief". Terrorizer. 142. London: 54–55.