Funeral Procession

Excellent specimen of no-frills black metal. No orchestras, no trying to be overtly necro or primitive, no trying to "out-evil" anyone else...in short, nothing to annoy anyone. In other words, a very positive excursion into sinister negativity! There are minimal keyboards and brief acoustic interludes on here that may be acceptable in lieu of vast orchestras or over-layered keyboards for the symphonic crowd, and things to please every other sub-genre of black---even including some old-fashioned mid-80s type riffing and structures.

First and foremost, this album is a worthy tribute to many black metal bands before them. One can hear hints of Mayhem, Immortal, Emperor...YOU get the picture! As stated before, there are no lush keyboard passages, this is almost entirely vocal, guitar, bass, and drums, all of which are well-represented in the mix. Welllllll, maybe not bass, but who needs THAT anyway?! Vocalist Count Gothmog has a satisfying upper-mid-range cackling shriek that is not entirely unique, but not a direct clone of anyone else, either. Like everything else about Funeral Procession, the vocals are an amalgam of the best sounds of others. And, in the end, if one can't have absolute originality, why not combine a lot of excellent ingredients from past favourites?

The songs are quite interesting, with varying arrangements and tempos. There are actual verse, verse, chorus songs to be heard on here, as well as some that are less formally structured. The production is really good, not super "crisp and crunchy" but not lacking in anything, either, and certainly not muddy or dull. 2 songs in particular stand out, showing the wide range of diversity this band has to offer. Track 4 begins with simple guitar chords that are, and this is super-bizarre, EXACTLY the same as the beginning of "Bad Luck" by Social Distortion! In fact, this Funeral Procession "intro" could be a live version of that Social Distortion song...until the song proper kicks in and you forget all about Social D. The intro is exploded, and throughout the quickly-paced remainder of the song, the listener is treated to recurring "explosions", courtesy of a very cool floor-tom (I guess!?!?) pounding VERY hard to accentuate certain sections of the song. Very dramatic, unexpected, and cool. The final song could very well be an homage to Sodom; the main riff and it's faster mutation toward the last 2/3rds of the song could be right off of "Expurse of Sodomy" or "Persecution Mania"---not the fast, thrashy sections of the Sodom classics, but the menacing yet simple mid-paced material. The riffs, in conjunction with the production, actually did take me back to those Sodom masterpieces. Of course, Funeral Procession shake things up with a revving up of the old black metal machine in this song, as well, but it was really a welcome blast of nostalgia how they captured that ancient Sodom sound. Whether it was intentional or not! Hmmmm, they ARE both from Deutschland.....

Don't forget to skip backward from track 1 to enjoy the pretty dead-on Darkthrone cover. Even without that, Funeral Procession's self-titled debut is very, very satisfying. If you need more of a reference, just think a combination of "Expurse of Sodomy" and "De Mysteriis Dom Satanas", and you'd be pretty close, though even that ham-handed attempt at pedigree sells Funeral Procession short. Despite all these references to other bands, one can hear FP's own identity and can extrapolate that they are capable of becoming a household (or graveside) name. I would have actually given these guys a 99 or 100%, but that can only be reserved for the ultra-elite in my mind. Funeral Procession comes mighty close, and may one day be in that elite! I've listened to the album so many times in the last month and I'm still not remotely sick of it...but it leaves me clamoring for more.