Funeral Circle set out to be epic doom metal, but unlike Candlemass, Funeral Circle, for the most part, retain a crunchier groove-riff-burdening album featuring slower tunes with sparse guitar solos and leads. When those leads and solo licks do kick in, the impact is much harder.
Review: Funeral Circle – Self-Titled
National Music Reviews
Funeral Circle
Self-Titled
Shadow Kingdom
Street: 11.19
Funeral Circle = Devil + Candlemass + Witchfinder General
These days, it’s hard to be epic unless you release a quintuple-picture wooden box LP of your eight-hour album. Funeral Circle set out to be epic doom metal, but unlike Candlemass, Funeral Circle, for the most part, retain a crunchier groove-riff-burdening album featuring slower tunes with sparse guitar solos and leads. When those leads and solo licks do kick in, the impact is much harder. Funeral Circle’s greatest achievement is a clever balancing act of being atmospheric and blatantly heavy with equal emphasis on creating memorable songs. The band’s debut, here, reeks of an older time without getting that unfortunate label-slap of being a throwback artist. The production, especially for the vocals, has a chamber “echo” music feel that is all very important for doom fiends—if there is no sense of dread, it’s not doom. –Bryer Wharton
Self-Titled
Shadow Kingdom
Street: 11.19
Funeral Circle = Devil + Candlemass + Witchfinder General
These days, it’s hard to be epic unless you release a quintuple-picture wooden box LP of your eight-hour album. Funeral Circle set out to be epic doom metal, but unlike Candlemass, Funeral Circle, for the most part, retain a crunchier groove-riff-burdening album featuring slower tunes with sparse guitar solos and leads. When those leads and solo licks do kick in, the impact is much harder. Funeral Circle’s greatest achievement is a clever balancing act of being atmospheric and blatantly heavy with equal emphasis on creating memorable songs. The band’s debut, here, reeks of an older time without getting that unfortunate label-slap of being a throwback artist. The production, especially for the vocals, has a chamber “echo” music feel that is all very important for doom fiends—if there is no sense of dread, it’s not doom. –Bryer Wharton
Photos:
