Funeralium - "Deceived Idealism" ...

Deceived Idealism marks 5 years between albums for this French doom band but not to fear, they are extreme as ever and they have made the wait worth it by releasing a double album full of even longer, sicker, tortured doom. The long wait between albums came about because of line-up changes but that doesn't seem to affected them in any way at all. In fact they are possibly even more extreme now. This album is long, long, very long....so long that every time I listen to it I lose all track of time. The actual total playing time is around 90 minutes but these tracks are so slow and painfully tortured that the album can seem even longer. I have to admit this isn't the kind of album you throw on just to past the time or to wash your clothes to, this is a devastating slab of doom that makes most black metal bands seem light-weight. Most of the album is a blend between ultra slow doom metal a-la Winter and black-metal influenced doom metal but there is a third element injected into these depressive tales of woe that seems totally unique to Funeralium.

That is where major improvements have been made. The bands first two releases were sickly heavy but didn't break any new ground and sounded like many other bands in the extreme doom scene. 'Deceived Idealism' sounds more original but it is a long drawn-out painful album to sit through. There are only two songs that could be considered concise or anything remotely near being straight-forward, they being the opening 'Blood, Phlegm and Vomit' and another track midway through the album titled 'Hang These Bastards.' The rest of the album contains 4 epic pieces of sickness and filth that will have the more depressed music listener reaching for the nearest razor-blade. As dramatic and extreme as these tracks are, there is really not a hell of a lot of variation and it can get pretty dull at times. The albums 2 longest tracks, both of which past the 20 minutes mark are the worst offenders.

When the tracks are at their best, it is a interesting blend of extreme styles that works well. The band are obviously still in love with the 90's doom era and much of this album does have a old-school extreme doom vibe whether it be traces of early Cathedral or other passages where they seem to be channeling bands such as Wormphlegm. One of the most extreme facets of the bands sound and style is the vocals which are not "real" vocals at all, more like a series of tortured screams and growls. There also isn't one track that stands out as being better than the others as this album is consistent in its approach but you are more likely to be swept away by passages within the songs than the songs themselves. As a exercise in extreme doom self-indulgence, this album is almost flawless but whether you will want to revisit this level of doom sickness too often is questionable....7.5/10.

Words: Doomm@niac

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