Funerary Bell : "Undead Revelations"

The opening track from this band's forthcoming album, made me stop and ask..."Did these guys always sound like Mercyful Fate?" They don't use the high King Diamond falsettos, but the vocals are in his more crooned moan. This Finnish band doubles them up with some more evil sounding rasp. They take on a more straight forward form of old school thrash at the intersection of death metal with "Goat of Mendes" that follows. This finds the band in the same zip code as Mortuary Drape. They continue to digress into a more conventional form of blasting that conforms with most modern day models of black metal when kicking into "the Word Became Flesh". The vocals have more of a death metal grunt to them. They indulge a darker moodier side that shows more personality two minutes into the song before picking the pace back up. They do slow into more of a thrash gallop. When it comes to guitar solos they follow a more early Slayer blueprint.

"Hermetica" starts off with a catchier riff than what it speeds up into. It has a much more thrash feel, but it's well written, where they fall into the momentum overtaking them when they feel the need for speed. They gallop into "Mantra"  feeling like we have ridden the same horse down this path before. The album does succeed in finding a warm crisp organic sound that recalls 80s thrash, paired with more death metal vocals. They chug into "Revelation Part 2" with a great deal of authority. The vocals dropping into a lower growl that the double bass compliments to make some effective death metal Up to this  point in time are these guys conceding to being solely black metal even earlier in the album when they bombarded the ear drums with blast beats. There is a more melodic bridge that makes the more thrashed out build even more dynamic. They continue down this more death metal direction on "Anima Eterna" .

By the time the album gets to  "Tree On the Planet Grave" they have settled into a blackened death metal with a few touches of melody and dynamics that make this seem marginally more inspired than this being a "Ok, lets make an album so we can go on tour affair". There is a great deal of growth in the production and song writing on this album. You can actually here the bass playing. But five minutes into "Tree On the Planet Grave " it's as inspiring as watching a senior citizen porn where you are only wondering how long can they keep it up. Thankfully they slow things back down when closing with "Spectral Moonchild". They are not able to use restraint for long and find themselves blasting back soon enough. I'll give this album a 7.5 as it got off to a strong start and then descended into something more typical, so after they showed me what they are capable of I expect that level of creativity, you might be happy with this blend of metal that is well preformed if not happy falling in with the current state of metal. For the band's second album this is a pretty decent effort and shows growth putting them a few steps ahead of typical raw Finnish black metal sound.

Funerary Bell : "Graveyard Seance"

Black metal when it takes its blast beats too seriously can become myopic. So to hear a band that does something different even by only a few degrees is what I need to feel like the genre is not getting stagnant. This Finnish band has way more rock to this band than I thought there would be , I'm not complaining these old classic metal riffs that get thrown in are pretty damn awesome. The riffs pick up the slack for the growled vocals to provide hooky melodies. Perhaps not harmonized and proggy to the extent that Iron Maiden is , but heading in that direction. In Solitude might be another reference point, though with low growled vocals instead of the Mercyful Fate mid range croon. The hit a slower groove when they chug their way into "Eleanor's Garden" a song that had been circulating on the Internet for some time. The have yet to release their second full-length so this ep is keep themselves out there til they finished it, how ever its not their first rodeo These guys have done their time in other projects like Verge, Nodian, Blood Red Fog and Charnel Winds.

 Metal drummers are supposed to be awesome , but this guy goes above and beyond to impress that point into you mind, with cyborg feet hammering the double bass. "Doctrina the Insulter" is another slower paced old school grinder of a song that captures almost a doom vibe.The vocals become more anguished here as well.Not sure at this point if it is even black metal as it pulse on a doomy drone, they owe more to the first wave of black metal than what came out of Norway in the Early 90s.

The blast to "Liberate Me" feels more death metal than black metal, similar to the cavernous roaring that Von brings forth. It is not as nuanced or dynamic as the previous songs, even with the hellish orgy that occurs in the songs final moments.But even with that it is not as compelling. They redeem themselves on"Eternal Coven". The riffs is doomier and rumbles like old Celtic Frost, as the low growl rumbles up from under the guitar. The bass and the guitar are hard to differentiate at this point in time. The pace picks up as the double bass drives them into a gallop, before the lurch back into a slower speed. If Arch Goat was more into classic metal then I suppose the results would be similar.I look forward to hearing what these guys can do when Saturnal Records releases their next  full length. This one gets off to a stronger start but over all is walking its own left hand path so I'll give it an 8.