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Dark Funeral > Dark Funeral > Reviews
Dark Funeral - Dark Funeral

Out of the twilight - 80%

Felix 1666, July 31st, 2016
Written based on this version: 1994, CD, Hellspawn Records

Back in 1994, the underground spat out the debut EP of Dark Funeral. Nobody knew how great this band will get, but one thing was for sure: this first release indicated the huge potential of the unholy creatures from Sweden. Coming out of the twilight, the band performed four pieces of pure black metal. Neither the song structures nor the riffs and lines offered surprising elements in abundance. Yet it became clear in a matter of minutes that Dark Funeral had a good grasp for the moods and mechanisms of the dark sub genre.

Already the fittingly titled opener invites the listener on a trip into the dark. "Open the Gates" is based on intensive guitars and straightforwardly hammering drums. The necessary amount of tempo changes and a gloomy break show up as well. Some catchy parts, inter alia the demonic chorus, illustrate the compositional talent of the guys. From today's perspective, this song (and the further tracks as well) does not feature unique facets, but we may not forget that the second wave of black metal was still in its infancy. 1994 was the year of "Transylvanian Hunger", "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" and "Hvis lyset tar oss". These groundbreaking albums were, of course, not the first works of the revitalized genre. Nevertheless, Dark Funeral joined the movement at an early stage...

...and they were full of energy. "Shadows Over Transylvania" impresses with its smooth yet very powerful lines. The lyrics are crammed with buzzwords like cold moon, blood red skies, wolves, ancient castle and so on, but the music itself avoids any form of simple-mindedness. Blast beats driven sequences are successfully combined with fast verses and a few number of redirecting breaks. Not to mention the slightly weird melody line at the end. The remaining tracks do not pale beside "Open the Gates" and "Shadows Over Transylvania". They follow more or less the same musical concept. Thus, it is a matter of taste which song one likes most. I tend to the two openers, but all songs spread an evil flair and benefit from the professional, dark and firm production.

Taking all these details into account, Dark Funeral had released a promising debut. Pure back metal was refined with a tiny pinch of death metal (a guitar line of the closer greets the community of the Grim Reaper) and the result carried a clear signature which is still present in their recent album. A clear position is (almost) always a good thing. In this context, Dark Funeral did and do not need to have a bad conscience.

Prototypical, subgenre-defining slice of BM - 79%

erebuszine, April 14th, 2013

Here it is then, this prototypical, subgenre-defining slice of violent, professionally produced Swedish black metal, the EP which was both an announcement of this band's entry into the scene as well as an essential document (along with 1996's 'The Secrets of the Black Arts') of that sound, the clean, no-frills, hyperspeed version of black metal which I have to come to absolutely loathe in the years after this record's release. This is an essential document/recording, however, because it has influenced so many bands - hundreds upon hundreds, one is led to believe.

And truth be told, it's not that bad, not at all. It doesn't really say anything new, but it provided an avenue (or opened a path) for bands who wanted a more sparkling and fresh alternative from the realm of the necro, and so many bands have gone down that path now that it seems like Dark Funeral hit upon something new themselves: that black metal could be 'professional', it could be well-produced, one could hear all the instruments on the recording, and the entire tone of a band's release could be geared towards an audience that was used to the sound of Swedish death metal releases...

The music is not iconoclastic, and in my ears it seems routine, almost trite and reticent in its unwillingness to incorporate anything creative... but one also has to remember that it was 1994 when this came out, and the black metal scene at that time was undergoing a cataclysmic series of changes... many bands were turning towards more 'commercial' sounds, if not in the music itself then in their production values. Besides, this band has never really been about originality.

Much like their close competitors and fellow pillars of the Swedish scene, Marduk, this band makes it extremely difficult to hear differences between their songs.. after a while it just all tends to blend together, and the production, with its vanilla wafer, sterile aesthetics, does not help matters. But if you listen close enough, the differences are there... I mean: there is a lot of music that speeds past the consciousness, buried under the squeaky clean guitar sound.

Ultimately this is just extremely listenable, it goes down easy, without really snagging on any of one's biases or preconceptions, and in that capacity one would think it had the ability to draw disparate segments of the scene together. Didn't it, after all? Who really hates Dark Funeral? Who has ever been offended by Dark Funeral? For me, now, this re-release is interesting mainly because it pits the production sounds of the two largest/most well-known Swedish studios and producers against each other... with the EP proper, it is Swano and Unisound (I blame Swano for the 'clean' sound in black metal production circles, may he be damned) and with the bonus tracks included on this disc (two Bathory covers) it is Tagtgren and the Abyss studios, the recordings being done in '94 and '96, respectively. As so, once again this record, in its re-release, becomes indicative of the larger musical movements within Sweden. From Unisound to the Abyss - that was the progression, wasn't it?

I will say that the Bathory covers done here ('Equimanthorn' - yes, one of the most 'influential' black metal songs of all time - and 'Call From The Grave', both from 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark') are excellent, really top-notch and professional in their planning, playing and recording. 'Call From The Grave' is especially good... when it comes down to the moving solo in the latter part of the song, the theme/progression of which is based on a popular funeral air, the playing is focused and tight, and done with obvious respect. Inspiring.

Other noteworthy bonuses in the re-release: the great new cover art, done by Necrolord, of Levi's enthroned Baphomet, in purple, black, and white tones (I would love to have a poster of this), and the pictures in the lyric booklet, which are supposedly from Dark Funeral's 'personal collection'.

So, in any case, you know what this album is, you know if you want it... I would suggest at least picking it up and listening to it if you are unaware of this band's history, or the tremendous impact they have had on European black metal.

UA

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