Salvation

Black Metal is a genre that's been quite controversial ever since the second wave started in Norway. Nowadays, most of these groups have survived and earned their status due to those controversies more than their actual music. Many bands nowadays have followed in the steps of the "trve kvlt" bands, often repeating formulas and patterns. One of the reasons why I find it hard to get into Black Metal is because many bands tend to sound the same. However, despite the simplicity that the music in here has, this is an album that deserves recognition.

Funeral Mist is a band that is deserving of more attention. Sure, the main band behind this project is the current vocalist of Marduk, but I'd dare to say that this little project of his is as good (if not better) than Marduk. Released in 2003, Salvation is one of the most chaotic, cold, hate-filled albums ever made in the history of Black Metal.

The music in this album is very simplistic, yet powerfully executed. I've seen that this band is known as a "Norsecore band that doesn't suck". To clarify, Norsecore is a term used to describe bands who plays extremely fast with little creativity, often repeating the same thing over and over. While this can describe Funeral Mist's music, it would be wrong to judge them just for that term. There's more to this than just the music. The atmosphere in this album is permeated with a thick, cold hatred that is spewn through Arioch's words in every song. You can pretty much see him standing on a podium, addressing the entire world about the darkness that is being unfold. This is reinforced through certain segments of inverted vocals passages, samples, vocals and recording manipulation. The production here is quite good as well, despite the lack of bass. Guitars are cold, razor-sharp. Drums are pummeling, like hammers. But the main attraction here, and what provokes the most positive reaction, is Arioch's vocals.

This album has, perhaps, one fo the most interesting and hate-fueled vocals ever made in Black Metal. His vocals are a bit more growlish than the standard commonly known for Black Metal, while also using a wide range of shrieks, grunts and pitch-shifted vocals. However, he does not limit to use certain techniques on specific tracks, as every song features layers of vocals. From start to finish, you will not hear just one voice constantly singing, but a multitude of vocals, like the most wretched of church choirs. While this was an element already explored before (Devilry EP), it's in this album that all the potential is unleashed, the result being an atmosphere drenched in hatred and horror.

The music itself, as mentioned before, is very simplistic. Every song features pretty much around 2-3 riffs for their entire duration, yet it doesn't need more than that to cause an impression. Throughout the album, the music is blasting at full speed, barely giving you any peace. Agnus Dei and it's follow-up, Breathing Wounds, will showcase the blasting rage of Salvation, while Circle of Eyes will grab your attention and test your patience, with a near 13-minute duration, encompassing devilish vocals and religious chants.

Lastly, I'd like to speak about the lyrics. Salvation is considered by many to be the first album in the Orthodox Black Metal movement. The lyrics in this album are religious, though not in the good way. As another reviewer noted, the lyrics rise to biblical level, perverted to showcase the entire opposite, sometimes being taken directly from real christian sources (In Manus Tuas's lyrics are taken from a prayer, with only one word of difference). Every word spoken in this record is meant to illustrate the absolute dystopia Arioch has envisioned. A world of pure chaos, blasphemy, hatred and death.

Let not the cover art fool you into thinking this is some sort of edgy album. This is a magnificent work, a one-of-a-kind album. While the following albums are as good as this one, Salvation leaves a terrifying impression upon the first listen. Like many other albums, it's quite hard to listen to the first time, as the caothic sound may turn you away from it, but give it a chance and embrace Arioch's Salvation.

Arioch (strings and vocals) and Necromorbus (drums, sound engineering and recording) had already ten years of experience playing in Funeral Mist when they released their first full length, “Salvation”, on 2003. They had already released one pretty decent demo in 1996 and the excellent Devilry EP from 1998, so you can say this album isn't really a debut. At least in terms of post production, Necromorbus studio abilities showed a big evolution. There are sonic landscapes sampled at the beginning of every track and through the whole record, that blend pretty well with Arioch’s compositions. The final mix in my opinion is kind of poor compared to the Devilry EP, but it seems like an artistic choice because you can hear the master tracks were recorded properly.

In this record there's also listed the contribution of a second guitarist, which I don't consider important because the composition style kept following Arioch’s trademark sound. Even if the mix is shallow and extremely bright, full of treble and featuring a disturbing lack of bass and weight; the black metal cold and harsh atmosphere benefits from that rawness. There's an intention to go back to the lo-fi demo days in terms of sound modeling but with better equipment; even though I think there's a regression in terms of production regarding the previous EP that sounded heavier and more defined and professional. Composition wise it's a natural continuation to the previous work: minimalist black metal with high harmonic tension in every tone interval, basic riffing (fast tremolo picking and power chords).Nothing out of this world or extremely technical but diabolically fast at times and done with good taste.

Profound lyrical concepts are a constant in this band’s carrier and this record makes no exception. Interesting reflections about the human experience through Satanism are sung by Arioch’s extremely talented multiphasic vocals. He is capable of doing high pitched shrieks and change to his trademark liturgical narrative tone in a blink of an eye. This second style features a lower register, he has a wide range. The only thing I dislike about this album is the lack of bass in the final mix: it can't be appreciated well individually and fails to give that massive surround feel and it doesn't anchors the rhythm with the melody, both elemental functions of the instrument.

Salvation is among the strangest black metal masterpieces I've heard. It could never be mistaken as a progressive album (at least not conventionally so) and it's much closer to the traditional than the avant-garde "religious" black metal that's followed in its path. Arioch's project Funeral Mist stands as the quintessential maker of true orthodox black metal, and while his second LP Maranatha still kicks the shit out of most of the contemporary scene, there's little debate as to which album will be remembered in the history books long after its maker has passed on.

To any outsiders, that probably sounds like high praise to heap onto a black metal album, particularly one I personally think is far from perfect or consistent in its effect. Rather, I can appreciate Funeral Mist on two levels: For starters, the album offers some of the most chaotic, dismal hatred I've ever heard on a traditional BM album. On the other hand, the whole "ortho" sound has spawned a lot of my best-loved works in the whole genre. And if Deathspell Omega may be seen as the ones who brought the Devil's music to a level of erudite brilliance, it was certainly Funeral Mist who paved the ideological path to get there.

Unlike the weeping majority of Satanic black metal albums, the theology behind Salvation is in-depth and transgressive. It's one thing to worship Satan in a city park somewhere with beers in your hand and early Bathory blasting on the boombox to the chagrin of fellow parkgoers. It's quite another to uplift the language of Satanism to the level of the thing it's meant to negate. A few days ago a friend of mine joked that Funeral Mist lyrics were essentially pro-Christian scripture with the word "Satan" replacing "Jesus" wherever possible. This is an exaggeration, of course, but the idea behind the observation is spot-on. Salvation rises to the level of Biblical scripture, then perverts it wherever possible. The word chosen for the album's title encapsulates everything the Christian dogma is meant to stand for. There's nothing in the scriptures here to suggest anything is ever truly saved. All is perverse and wretched. The lyrics to the album's 13 minute cornerstone "Circle of Eyes" illustrate this perfectly: "Lead me to those drowning and I shall bring water . . . Lead me to the thirsty and I shall bring earth." Is this a devotional work to Satan, or a condemnation of God? Some would posit there's no distinction between the two.

Unlike Deathspell Omega, who gave themselves fully over to the highbrow, Funeral Mist's music strikes me as an even balance between the "high" and the "low" styles in black metal. Gregorian chants (few have ever incorporated them so well into black metal), chaotic mixing and occasionally technical segments all reek of artistic aspirations, but it never for a second sounds like Arioch wishes to crawl out of the mud. The guitars are buzzy and raw. The drums (perfectly produced for their style) clamber with a ton of force and little apparent regard for precision. Arioch's cluttered vocals are probably the most chaotic and challenging thing about the album. His deeper rasp would be instantly recognizable on its own, but the overlayering with multiple apparent vocal lines erupting at once makes it overwhelming. In its own way, in keeping with the album's inversion of Christian art, Arioch's overdubbed vocals sound like a blackened mockery of Gregorian chants. It's what it would sound like if all the monks tried to sound louder than all others at once, and felt the need to commune with demons in order to do so.

Funeral Mist is at their best when the chaos makes extra way for the gloomy orthodox atmosphere. Even at its most traditional-sounding, Salvation is weird and striking. I like to think that it takes a lot for black metal to take me aback at this point. Other bands since have coalesced this sound into something more even-headed, but doing so probably robbed the sound of some of its bite. As it stands, Salvation is one of the most dangerous black metal records ever made. Even without the lurid real-life circumstances that helped other traditional masterpieces earn their classic status, the passing of years won't make this album feel any less transgressive and wretched.

As an added bonus, I'm sure bringing a copy to Sunday school for show-and-tell would make you an instant hit with everyone.

Funeral Mist have not actually created a "new" style or that they have forged some new amazing form of black metal out of thin air, out of the invisible elements, because all hype aside... that's simply not true. What they have done is take the most effective/best parts of disparate forms of black metal and merged them together in their own take on black metal tradition. That is the way paradigms appear in the black scene now, in its decline: as "original" takes on what has come before, as references that try, with a measure of effort commensurate with their founder's ambitions, to comment effectively and with meaning on what has come before. Why? Black metal is dead, and seemingly nothing new is going to come out of it in the future. All we have left now are [hopefully] distinctive forms of appraising, dissecting, and combining elements of the past. Bands are no longer judged on what they have come up with that breaks with tradition, but what they can say that has any kind of pertinence as they reflect back on the bands that have come before. Originality of personal expression is just simply not allowed in the black metal scene, the stifling genre characteristics that hold everything together as a musical movement are too strong.

The restriction have always been simple, but utterly damning: how can one reach too far towards originality when the limitations of the genre are so clearly set? If one tries to be too original the music escapes black metal's conservative dimensions, and the process defeats itself. There is no such thing, anymore, as an original black metal band. All the genre boundaries and tools of expression were discovered and set in stone ten years ago. All that bands do today is pick up these mechanisms, habits, patterns, and clichés and try to use them in some way that might be "meaningful" to somebody, anybody. In the meantime they sit and wait for a new band to come along to smash the scene's conservatism and allow experimentation beneath the banner of black metal again. They await their creative messiah.

Where is black metal's saviour?

Funeral Mist are from Sweden, and if you went purely by "nationalistic" methods of determining style before you had heard them you would be excused in thinking they would probably reference other Swedish bands... Setherial, maybe, or Marduk. They don't. Naglfar? No. They are conscious enough of their original take on tradition to have published the above quote, and they are haughty/proud enough to not stoop to merely referencing fellow countrymen. Funeral Mist wants to be its own band, it wants to carve out its own particular style of darkness. Of course they are mired from the start in a decade and a half of clichés, and they are not powerful enough [who is anymore?] to escape the conservative tradition of black metal themselves. It's impossible to label yourself as a certain type of band and then try to escape that label's stylistic definitions. Why even apply labels? I suppose it makes the process of identification and allegiance easier.

Nevermind.

The guitar sound is startlingly cold and lifeless, sort of a modern update of the six string flow from Mayhem's "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" opus, filtered through Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger" but boosted and compressed, made both more powerful and then limited in its expressive range. It is clear, clean, tight, very Swedish - it reminded me immediately of Dark Funeral's guitar tone. And the way in which this band employs barre chords to cycle through short little motifs and pieces of riffs also reminds me of the prototypically Swedish form of black metal, although Funeral Mist also references Immortal in the way these bland riffs can be launched in bursts of aggression towards the listener at times. I've always disliked the Swedish guitar sound, its hollowness and lack of dynamics, the way it just sort of sits there without any weight or body and forms song segments as an afterthought. So many Swedish bands just write material that is completely sterile, without any kind of emotional impact at all, like abstract mathematical exercises [but so simple, nothing challenging!] , and their ultra-compressed, smooth-as-marble guitar sound doesn't help anything. While I'm sure at first they were going for a sort of laconic, impassive, freezing arrogance and misanthropic imperturbability in the sound of their strings, a dead infertility or barrenness that would supposedly evoke images of ice-blasted landscapes and lifeless wastelands in the mind of the listener, all this really translates to when the material the guitar sound frames can't interest or hold one's attention is an appearance of musical aphasia. In other words: nothing to say, nothing to add, nothing to contribute, nothing to stir one's emotions, and nothing to build upon. How many Dark Funeral riffs can you recall?

The drum sound here is warmer, the skinwork simple and straightforward. It reminds me both of the basic rock rhythms on Secrets of the Moon's last album and, at times, some of the catchy give-and-take bumping and grinding on Virgin Black's second release. Nothing out of the ordinary here, and all is well. Nothing to complain about, and a fair amount to praise.

The songs themselves are lengthy "medieval" conceptual pieces that pace through different versions of tried-and-true black metal themes. We have high-flying, heaven-reaching grasps towards Demonaz-strumming barre chord ascendancy, riffs flying overhead like witches on their winding way towards a Sabbath, the shouting vocals below cursing, anathematizing, yelling dramatically, dogmatically. Icy winds swirl and course through rocky outcroppings and over Alpine gatherings of demonic forces: all is launched outwards against God. Drawn out dramatic segments illustrate lyrics of viperine blasphemy and the band's searing conviction of damnation and possession. "Holy Poison", which rocks with a rigid proletarian beat halfway through its shivering length and at its climax, is a virtual call for Satan to use the vocalist as a corroding acid to attack mankind. The screeches and groans bear witness: "Shine through me Satan/Yes, live now through this tool of yours/Live through me/O seditious star, and like a thousand suns shall I spread thy light/Like a thousand plagues/A thousand wars"; afterwards there is the summing "Original serpent/Hear me... see me/Enslave and use me". It's a prayer to the split-hoofed one, inviting destruction. Latin merging with the English prepares a sort of Dark Ages atmosphere. The next song, "Sun of Hope", begins and ends with the flagellant/Dies Irae scene from Ingmar Bergman's "Seventh Seal", which Abigor sampled earlier on their first album. Where the Austrian collective used that as a simple ambient set piece to introduce and press upon the mind a medieval "point of view", Funeral Mist treat the listener to an extended sampling of the scene that leaves one agonized. The song itself, as one might guess, is about Armageddon and the "purification" of total death.

"Perdition's Light" actually lets the band turn over a new leaf and injects guitar melody into the proceedings, something that had been missing before. The closing anthem/sentimental melody of this song, first launching its theme out of the thick sonic morass at 1:08, disappearing, and then reprised with attendant variations to bring the composition to a close, is very nice, probably the best riff on the album. It creates a memory, let's just say that. Throughout this song the vocals are rumbling back and forth through different effects and engage one from different directions, sort of the way in which Gorgoroth used them on "Destroyer" to create a feeling of randomness or chaos, or a contrasting/confusing reference to "modernity" as they echoed through distortion. This song is also a prayer to Satan. Surprise!

At this point things break wide open and Funeral Mist decide to use every trick they have gathered in their career [since '93 says the bio!] to create an impression on the listener. While the flowing riffs of the preceding four songs seem to mainly be shifting simplistic shrugs in scale up one or two frets on the strings the guitar playing in "Across the Qliphoth" almost sounds like death metal in that the fast slides and flickering fingerings set in motion lightspeed micro-rhythms. What? Fast pulsing guitar rhythms in black metal? Blasphemy! I also appreciate the use of morbid minor or inverted chord progressions here, which suggest in their eeriness early '90s Norwegian splendor and open up a new chapter on this band's ability to comment on what has come before them. Great song, completely confused in its delivery and structure, but very powerful nonetheless. I adore the way the ending scream that crowns this misanthropic/Gnostic enterprise drowns in its own blood, or under dark water... the cry that opens the next song's vocals then resurfaces from the same gargling sorcerer-sinking. Backward masking closes it. Immaculate heretical craftmanship.

Later, clean vocals are added, if you are interested... and the attention-grabbing use of samples continues. I can not identify most of them. I think the barking dogs that introduce and frame the rushing first riffs of the second song, "Breathing Wounds", might be from "The Omen", but I'm probably wrong. The samples also seem to draw this entire thing together into a thematic whole... but I'm not really able to put the "how" of that into words at this point. They all come from disparate sources and yet seem to circle around similar feelings or moods. The last song on this album is a very bizarre piece whose origin I can not locate...if it's not a sample it's the best best thing this band has ever written. If it is a sample then once again whoever chose the additions on this LP did a masterful job as it closes the entire thing admirably. I am not going to even attempt to describe how strange and oddly affecting it is.

All in all, this is a moderately creative work. Funeral Mist have at least attempted something original in that they haven't just settled for copying Darkthrone or aping some other glamour band of the moment, whatever this month's flavor is in the black metal scene. Give them points for that. If they could not reach farther, like I was saying above, it's probably just because they are still trying to play black metal and are confining themselves to stay within that genre. Admittedly, they do a good job of it... not just the self-limiting part, but also the part where they use almost every tool that is open to them in the tradition's chest of illusions and seductions short of just openly sampling Mayhem and Burzum. Smile.

I will definitely pay attention to what this band does in the future.

UA

Erebus Magazine
http://erebuszine.blogspot.com

Agnus Dei, Prince of peace, yet shall war be the echo of mine, and together shall we make the utmost balance, Verily, verily I say unto thee, In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them, Agnus Dei

The realms of apocalypse and destruction open up, and torment is spread upon the Earth. And Funeral Mist's Salvation shall be one of the opening soundtracks. Funeral Mist are an interesting conundrum in the world of black metal. At once taking what some would take a "norsecore" ideas of sound, and melding them with a highly original take on Satanism and certain elements of sound which blur the ideas we have built up of what black metal is.

Before we get into the lyrics and ideas of the recording let's discuss the music itself. Much of the album is made up of blasting, brain rattling insanity. Riffing is often chaotic noise that will at times formulate into understandable patterns. Sometimes even melodies find their way into the mix. Meanwhile the drums blast away underneath without becoming over bearing. Sometimes some slower and mid paced tempos will come out of the spewing mix like on "Realm of Plagues."

On top of all this are the spewing vocals of poison from Arioch, which are highly original and very different from the average black metal vocalist. He carries forth, seemingly possessed by the insanity of his lyrical conceptions, like a preacher upon a pulpit surrounded by strange pulpy figures in black robes oozing a strange stench. Death permeates the air of his performance and he has a malignant aura that needs to be heard. Some may dislike his vocals, they aren't for everyone.

A note made upon an important element in the music. There is a strong element of ambience here, samples of monks chanting, which sometimes even filters over upon the music itself. Also Arioch's voice is often used in a manner that seems more like an instrument or an ambient lair of perversion. One of the samples is from the Ingmar Bergman movie The Seventh Seal from a scene where a group of the flaggelents (a group who wandered medieval Europe beating themselves to attone for their sins due to the black plague) wander into the town the main characters are in. This sample has the dubious honor of being used by quite a few black metal bands, including Abigor on their first full length. But hey it's a cool sample, and works very well is the plague ridden landscape of Salvation.

Also one can point out the usage of the warping of the recording, presenting the recording as being a representation that can be twisted by the creator. There are many sections where the recording will be purposely tampered with to warp the sound. Like some demons trying to get through the music, the music itself being just a seal upon a realm of desolation beyond.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding Arioch's lyrics (along with many in the so called orthodox scene like Deathspell Omega, Ondskapt, etc.) mainly due to the strange symbolisms used. I think people see some usages and imageries from the Bible and cry out, they are really Christians! However, more consideration on the part of the creator should be shown. Arioch's lyrics are dense and not easily understood, sometimes they present more normal ideas in black metal like on "Sun Of Hope" which is a highly misanthropic writing, presenting that salvation is found through destruction. In a way I feel Arioch is crafting some kind of anti-world in this recording, a world of desolation, plague, depravity and decay, which in some way mirrors ours. Riding into the Qlippah to illuminate our own insanities.

Sometimes I think he is also operating with Gnostic ideas taken to an extreme. This world of flesh is simply the Archonic realms of death, and through Satan who is the true God we can find a salvation beyond the light of perdition. Who knows, like I said his lyrics are often very cryptic.

The album is a must own, the booklet is filled with images that give power to the words within and help place the listener into the mind frame needed to listen to the album. That being said, this isn't an album I can listen to at all times. It requires it own little world to operate in, and it is often so bombastic and hate filled that is overwhelms the senses.

I do in the end highly suggest this recording, because Funeral Mist are a part of a generation of black metal artists that whilst still working the roots of the style are presenting new ideas and concepts to the forefront. For one to take the Satanism of black metal seriously and push it to its extreme. Regardless of your feelings on that kind of conception, the world created by Arioch on this release has power. A bleak sense of humor is also presented here and there, and the usage of strange almost old timey feeling decadence as on the outro call to mind being in an old horror movie from the 30's.

I really enjoy this album, and have since I first purchased it, what feels like so many years ago. I can do nothing less then encourage interested readers to take this album out for a spin. Just don't let it spin you into oblivion.

Shine through me Satan, Yes live now through this tool of yours. Live through me, O Seditious star, and like a thousand suns, shall I spread thy light, Like a thousand plagues, a thousand wars, I bind for thee the hope of man, Bound on earth, bound in heaven, Burn in me, angel! Yes burn the self to kill the human within...

For most of this recording bar the last few minutes these Swedish guys know only two speeds: hellishly fast and super-hellishly fast, making for an extremely chaotic and blurry yet intense experience in which guitars, drumsticks and snares are shredded faster than a bird can fly into an electric fan. It's a wonder the musicians don't age as fast as well. The production is clear and there's a lot of reverb so the guitars and percussion can sound tinny with even the snare drums sounding like those old metal garbage bin lids. The recording isn't as blurry as it would be with a more muted atmosphere. Arioch's vokills are meaty and sinister and overlap quite a bit so on some tracks parts of himself seem to be having a dialogue; they might well be as the lyrics in each song seem contradictory as if they constitute a battlefield of thoughts in which the only certain outcome has to be death and chaos.

Within and between tracks are various samples and field recordings such as chanting monks and bells which enhance the disorienting effect of an otherwise relentless and often repetitive and monotonous album. This creates a musical tapestry in which the main threads are of an anti-religious and apocalyptic bent. The stand-out track is "Circle of Eyes" for Arioch's strangely undulating inhuman voices which give the impression of slithering subterranean serpents. The music is simple structurally but this allows for plenty of samples of those chanting mnks and the whole song demonstrates the duality of the album's concept. "Salvation" comes as a double-edged sword.

It's a really intense head-cleaning experience that'll spin-dry your brain and cause your ears to overflow with toxic fluids from within your cranium from the sheer speed and force of the music. There's no relief until near the very end where the outro "In Manus Tuas", featuring a most ineresting guitar intro, fades into an out-of-tune chamber music piece with a wandering clarinet that seems more appropriate for a circus freak show. If the rest of the album hasn't so far sent you clean around the bend, maybe this song should be enough to flush you down there.

The artwork in the CD booklet is something gruesome to behold: it looks like a collection of pieces in a medical museum, the sort that's open only to medical specialists and students. Those Funeral Mist guys would sure be interested in my copy of Armand Marie Leroy's "Mutants" which has some alarming photos of one-eyed cyclopean babies, malformed mermaid foetuses and conjoined twins and maybe if the book had been published earlier than the album's release, some of the pictures in the book might have ended up in the CD booklet.

An original version of this review appeared in The Sound Projector (Issue 15) in 2007.

I happened to find this album at a local metal cd store and after seeing the wicked album art I knew it was a black metal band so I raced home and downloaded it instead of shelling out the 20 bucks before to see if it was decent and let's just say I'm glad I didn't make an impulse buy for I would have been sorely disappointed. Funeral Mist plays chaotic, blasphemous and sometimes incoherent black metal. It's raw, dirty and the production isn't that good which works in there favor I assume, considering it would take more to make me interested in this.

Black metal isn't my favorite sub genre but I certainly enjoy a lot of bands that inhabit this illustrious sub genre and I guess it's safe to say Funeral Mist aren't my type. The music is a wall of noise at times, with the guitar tone being very fuzzy, grainy and having hardly any noticeable riffs. There are main riffs that seem to have little variety and don't stray from the norm. I wouldn't mind it if they seemed to be memorable at all but it's rather weak. The guitar makes for nothing unique and is highly forgettable other than being there. Yeah if you're into underground and raw kvlt shit then it might be for you but I can't see how this makes for decent stuff, and I'm pretty sure there isn't a bass...

The drumming is standard hyper fast blast beats and pounding that either hurts my ears at times or can actually be enjoyable. He's highly talented and displays quite an impressive array of technique but it isn't enough to help differentiate itself from the wall of noise. The highlight would probably be the vocals; I can enjoy this guy's shrieks and vicious ranting. Arioch is probably the best thing going for Funeral Mist, it seems like he's shrieking or screaming in pain; his yells are full of agony and it seems like he's about to burst into flames from his blasphemic raving. Props to him for making it rather unique, especially at times how he almost goes into a Bal-Sagoth narration style vocal approach.

The songs on here don't show much diversity, with little to tell them apart other than random sound clips thrown in. There are some decent songs here like Sun of Hope where it starts off promising with some sort of chanting leading into a decent riff and drum pattern that allowed me to headbang for a bit with Arioch displaying his ability to rapidly spit out venomous words of hate. Perdition's Light had a decent riff for a bit before it ventured out into noise and incessant picking and blast beats. I do feel though that sometimes throughout the album that there is an attempt to create an apocalyptic atmosphere and it mostly achieves with having a sense of doom or loss of emotion, which I can get into. It makes me feel like a mix of Vital Remains and some Mayhem.

My biggest problem with Funeral Mist and black metal in general is how it can lack diversity and memorability. Some songs lack a general attempt at structure it seems with just rapid fire blasting and fuzzy guitars buzzing all over the place with no organization. Salvation has its moments I won't lie, but in the end I find myself left with nothing other than those few stand out moments. Props to Arioch though with his unique vocals and the few random riffs that I enjoyed. If you enjoy chaotic, unorganized black metal or raw approaches then Funeral Mist is probably for you though.

It's been roughly eight months since the day I first heard this masterpiece, and it still surprises me how technical yet undeniably evil this album is. In every music genre, there are bands that are quite content to keep releasing generic, boring, everyday garbage, Marduk being the prime example of this. I bought this album after a number of people I know gave it very high praise, and not quite knowing what to expect, I put it into my CD player. After the final sound sample of In Manus Tuas stopped playing, I sat stunned, not knowing quite what had happened but already certain that I had heard a black metal album unlike any other.

This is Funeral Mist's first full-length album, comprising of 10 songs and clocking in at no less than one hour and seven minutes. At first glance, one might dismiss this album as above-standard norsecore, as it it hard to distinguish much in the maelstrom of chaos. However, once one gets past the not-so-squeaky clean production, one can see that this is a true masterpiece. The riffing in this album is razor-sharp and played at breakneck speed, yet still manage to evoke feelings of majestic evil and hate in a way that no other black metal band to this day has managed to accurately reproduce, thank Satan for that. The drumming provided by Necromorbus is manic in its intensity and calculated in its variety; the (at times ridiculously fast) double bass rumble rarely ever leaves a moment of respite to the listener. As excellent as the guitarwork and drumming by Nachash and Necromorbus respectively may be, it is Arioch's vocals that shine through in this album; the man's voice is different from your typical black metal shrieking. He uses a powerful, commanding, almost spoken technique that occasionally still sends shivers down my spine, as well as a fairly wide range of shrieking, moaning and some methods that should not even be possible for a human to produce (see 4:31 of Across the Qliphoth for an example). The lyrics deal almost exclusively with orthodox devil worship and blasphemy, and are written either in English or Latin. Scattered throughout the whole album are various sound samples, such as church bells tolling, orchestras playing or choirs singing, which adds to the twisted, disturbing atmosphere that this album inevitably creates.

Yes, this album is disturbing. These songs have a feel to them that no other black metal band I've ever heard has ever been able to recreate fully, one of complete and utter evil. This are true psalms of worship to Lucifer; an accurate way to describe them would be to say that they are the exact reversal of the church hymns. For this reason I am fairly certain that this band is the first real orthodox black metal band in existence, and still the best. It is my strongest conviction that Funeral Mist have raised the bar impossibly high with Salvation; In fact, I doubt that were they to reform, would they be able to create an album on par with this one. In short: if you are a black metal fan, this album is an absolute essential, no ifs, ands or buts. If you don't like it, chances are you shouldn't be listening to this genre in the first place.

I’ve been a bit interested in the releases that N.E.D. has been selling, and I decided to pick up this Funeral Mist release after I heard some tidbits of their music (as well as being gratified by Deathspell Omega’s Kenose).

For the most part, Funeral Mist sails at a breakneck pace. The style here is very fast and straightforward for the most part, reminiscent of the fervor of 1349 and having very hi-fi production. Nonetheless, the production here works in favor of the excellent tempos and rhythms therein. Their rush is hurried along even further by the frantic “fire and brimstone” fervor of Arioch. What's interesting is that Arioch’s vocals have this meaty thickness to them that I don't think many black metal bands have. His vocals have a strange overlapping quality. It’s a bit diminishing, but overall promotes the intensity. The assaults they dash out are very chaotic, assisted by the battery of Necromorbus. Nachash’s guitars range from tremolo riffs, Darkthrone-reminiscent power chord stylings, to that of riffs that can keep up with up with the beat. Sometimes it’s a bit too chaotic, but overall I think they have some real potential. Very precise.

The atmosphere is anarchic and frenzied, but they even have moments of clarity scattered mixed into their race to annihilation. Similar to Deathspell Omega’s approaches, the music seems to stop and break with some sort of atmospheric illustration of sorts. In most of the songs, the sounds are scattered. “Sun of Hope” is a good example. In the beginning, as well as the end of the song, there is this singing, middle eastern in origin (I would think Judaic), and in the background it sounds as if someone’s being flogged to death, with people moaning and grieving about (Jesus?). From sounds of drowning (“Across the Qliphoth”), being crucified (“Agnus Dei), holiness (“Realm of Plagues”, “Circle of Eyes” ), all add to Funeral Mist’s collective, rich, contradictory, and varied ways of exhibiting life in all of its possible glories, as well as it’s tortures.

The lyrics and imagery bring up all sorts of questions. What is the purpose of this album?
Is this really so-called "devil worship", or does it mean more than that? I think questions like these, along with the very Bible inspired lyrics and imagery are at the base and are not as ambiguous as they might seem. Note the lyrical duality that is present in almost every song, as well as the almost pleading notions that lead to chaos, destruction, and ultimately, death. I don't think this is "devil worship" as some may erroneously call it, but as more of a representation of our dualistic world. Aside from that, I'll leave my interpretations to myself.

In totality, the straightforward barrage of musical, as well as ideological, intensity, might serve to make listeners ears run forth with fountains of blood, but for those willing to let some decently crafted straightforward black metal grow on to them, these are fertile grounds for annihilation. Go on ahead boy, praise that Seditious Star!

I must admit that when I first heard this 65 minute monstrosity of barely audible shredding and incessant blasting I wasn’t impressed at all. It sounded just like any uninspired norsecore band I had ever heard. Maybe a little more vicious. And it had original vocals. I am glad I decided to give this a few more listens because of those reasons.

Once I got used to the sound and could penetrate the fuzz I realised this is quite an intense and interesting album. The guitars sound like hissing snakes, spewing forth an endless stream of venomous riffs. Think Deathspell Omega’s most hellish moments. Necromorbus’ racing drumming is without doubt the best “norsecore-ish” drumming I’ve heard. Another Deathspell Omega comparison: it sounds much like “Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice” but more speedy and urgent.

Production on everything is clear and audible, a necessity considering how chaotic the band can sound at times. The particular sound of the instruments ensures that it never sounds clean and lifeless. I have one problem with the sound though. The snare drum is recorded with a variable amount of reverb (I suppose it depends on how hard Necromorbus hits it.) which sounds incredible during the ample fast blasting sections but can get a little annoying during the slow parts. A cool touch is that the sound on the bass drums gets gradually heavier as the album progresses.

Arioch’s vocals are a high point for the album. Definitely original, they are much more growly than normal BM vocals but don’t sound DM-ish in the least. Angry is the most fitting adjective I think. Effects are put on them in some songs and there is a lot of dual vocal work on the album. They are an integral part of the songwriting, another good thing. One gets the impression that every single note, beat and scream is perfectly thought out, meticulously placed, rehearsed to death and rerecorded untill the feeling was captured perfectly. Whether or not this is actually true is irrelevant, it’s the impression that counts.

The songs have one or two main riffs (or clusters of riffs) that recur throughout the otherwise chaotic songs. This succeeds in giving them an identity. Samples (ambient noise, screams, church bells etc.) separate the songs instead of the usual short silences. Most of these are well chosen and fitting the apocalyptic atmosphere Funeral Mist are going for, though others just sound weird.

Standout track on the album would be “Circle of Eyes”. Placed as the eighth track (out of ten) to break the ‘monotony’ of the album it is a bit different. Slightly more than twelve minutes, one riff. Ok to be fair there’s two or three others but at least nine minutes consist of that one four-note riff. Repetitive, but it works. Trance-inducing druming and overlaying monk chant samples round this perfect epic out.

I highly recommend this album to people looking for something apocalyptic, vicious and blisteringly fast. Salvation may not be the most original album ever, (objectively I would rate this lower) but they sure know how to do their thing, and do it well. Funeral Mist destroy anything remotely resembling “norsecore”.