Death is June -FUNEBRARUM : " Beckoning the Void of Eternal Silence"

 

This is the New Jersey-based band's third album. I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to check them out, but I suppose there are only so many hours in the day, and they came in at the tail end of the death doom bandwagon. The yare dark enough for my tastes, though, which I appreciate. They build things into enough of a purposeful chug to fall on the death metal side of the equation, with the vocals in a call and response between the lower growl and a higher snarl. The guitar solos have enough flash to appease most metal fans. The second finds the mood being balanced between morose meandering and the aggression of death metal. The next minute, things accelerate into a blasting death-metal flurry. It's not as impressive as the title track, as it falls much closer to the status quo for death metal in 2026. Though it sounds good from a production standpoint and is well executed 

"Through Barren Halls of Greiving Emptiness" has a catchier riff leading into the verse, but then they speed up when things really start to kick in. The vocals drop down to a layer of growling that is just another texture. Most of the songs fall under the six-minute mark, with the 8-minute last song the exception to the rule. They slow way down into a more dismal shade for "Into Dark Domains". The atmosphere for this one is pretty cool, before they step on the gas and lay back off into hyper blasting. When they drop into the more deliberate chugs and the doom leaning spectral lumbering it seems their songwriting is at the peak of its powers, buyt the formula seems to be to speed up before you can really get lulled into their darkness. 

The tempo of "From Rotten Burial Shrouds feels like a rushed mess. There are a few cool riffs that show up toward the end, but the motto here is "cool riffs alone does not a good song make."Turning the Stones of Torment " is more focused with a taunt tension propelling the verse, even if the vocals as not as intentional, it comes together.  With songs like this, I can see why the average death metal fan would be impressed, but they are not consistent in this regard. At almsot nine minutes, the last song is the first that really sprawls out into a more massive undertaking. The bulk of it rides a double bass into the doomier resolution. Overall, I think that despite falling into the death metal tendency to rage out with speed at times, they pulled all this off very well. I will give it a 9.

pst263