Funeral Mist albums always appear out of nowhere. Last time there was
a nine year drought and then without any announcement Hekatomb
dropped, this time the wait was short by half but the announcement was
made a week in advance with two weeks left of the year. So despite
having my year end list mostly ready I decided to hold off a week so I
could at least give this a few listens before deciding to include it
or not. Now as Hekatomb topped my list in 2018 it’s hardly a
surprise I had high hopes, and after some initial trepidation they’ve
been mostly met. My first listen was jarring as it was rather
underwhelming not a feeling I’m used to when it comes to Funeral Mist.
I was ready to write the album off but the next day had it on while
working and the songs started creeping in on me. Then I finally took
some time and sat down and listened intently on my real stereo as
opposed to hearing it on the computer or in the car. This cemented the
view I’d been building to most of the day that this was truly a great
album. Now there are parts which I’m not fully enamored with but those
pieces are minor in the grand scheme of things. Arioch has managed to
create an album which again is immediately recognizable as a Funeral
Mist album but without sounding really like any of his previous
albums. Perhaps the most obvious change is that that despite the songs
mostly all being on the longer side the speed and intricacy of riffs
and fills have gone up significantly. All songs are mostly balls to
the wall fast and riffing is often inhumanly complex. Now sometimes
this goes overboard and I feel my mind starting to wander but those
moments are luckily few and far between. Despite coming out as late as
it did in my book Funeral Mist managed to blow the competition out of
the water this year.
Funeral Mist
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