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Review Summary: A rather bloated and uninteresting piece of funeral doom. The premise behind Night Must Fall’s Funeral of Mankind is a good one. Driven by synth and a meandering melody, there is a potential behind the slow procession the album displays; similar to Shape of Despair in terms of atmosphere, and a greater focus on a melodic brand of doom rather than a crushing one, you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking this would be good. However, the album falls into the mire of funeral doom mediocrity, really not breaking any sort of mould or distancing itself from other stagnant funeral doom. The problem with funeral doom is that if you do it by the book, and make a ‘standard’ funeral doom album, it really won’t be any good. There is no difference in funeral doom between a standard album and a bad album; an album really has to knock you back, or will simply be classed as mediocre. As much as Night Must Fall can be good, their album is mediocre and just doesn’t have anything in it which will warrant another listen.
The first third of the album comes in the track ‘Empty Light’, which for want of a better expression goes absolutely no where. It is 24 minutes of incredibly slow, synth-driven doom, with only a few minutes of the track vocalised. The guitars are very subdued, low in the mix and void of any feedback; furthermore, there aren’t any climaxes to liven up the damp mood set by the album. Second track ‘Carried Amidst the Funeral Winds’ travels at a slightly faster pace, but follows the standard set by the first track, and doesn’t really add anything new to the album. The final track ‘Funeral of Mankind’ is easily the better track of the three, using guitar feedback to create some distressing noises, which then goes on to give the guitar work later in the song a bit more brunt. Perhaps what could be called a semi-climax can be found at the end of ‘Funeral of Mankind’, but it is far too little, far too late.
Night Must Fall unfortunately have too much confidence in their music to have done any experimentation; given the fact that only a tiny proportion of metal listeners listen to funeral doom, this album goes one step further and caters only for those who can withstand 24 minutes of purely unimaginative music. In other words, the absence of any variety further narrows this album’s scope. After listening to both mammoth tracks on Funeral of Mankind, you’re left thinking to yourself, ‘what is the point?’. There was no excitement, no feelings were invoked, and it was a rather flavourless experience. This is not to say that the band’s music is actually bad, rather it has no defining aspect, no sharp turns, no surprises and worst of all, no consideration for your time. Simply put, Funeral of Mankind doesn’t make any effort to hold your attention, and for that reason is an album to be avoided.
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Average review for an average album. You may wonder why I even bothered to write this because no one, not even me, has any interest, but all I have to say is screw you.
On a side note, in the review I simply call this Funeral of Mankind when, as you may notice, the album's actual title is Night Must Fall / Funeral of Mankind. This is mainly because putting the full title would make the review look awkward. This album is a compilation of a demo and an EP from the band.
On another note, the album artwork is awesome.This Message Edited On 08.22.08
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A rather bloated and uninteresting piece of funeral doom
Redundant statement is redundant.
Good review though.
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Good review rasputin. And I agree, the album art is cool as hell.
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Cheers guys. The artwork sort of reminds me of the new Mourning Beloveth album's artwork, which is awesome too.
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Alright man, me and you are head to head. I'm gonna fire back pretty soon to keep up with your review pace so I don't get left in the dust. But all things aside, a nice, easy to read piece. I'll avoid this album like plus size girls.
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I saw this a few months ago on a blog raid and downloaded it specifically because the artwork looked interesting. Upon listening to Carried Amidst though, I became bored rather quickly and deleted it.
I admire your attempt at reviewing something boring. It's fairly easy to write about an album you like, but the true test is reviewing something that doesn't hold your interest. I know I couldn't do it.
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Nah you'll probably take the lead soon anyway, I'm struggling to maintain any sort of pace seeing as uni has started. A few more weeks in and I won't have any time to review at all  Cheers, though.
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You admire his attempt at reviewing something boring? You could argue that's all he does given the genre he tends to 'specialize' in. Funeral Doom is pretty polarizing and a good 50-70% of what you hear is going to be awful, plodding and mindlessly boring.
This is not meant as an insult, by the way.This Message Edited On 08.22.08
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Thanks Zoo, I listened to this album three times for this review . I admit it was over the space of a week, but it sure was a bore.
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first paragraph is...well awesome and true
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[quote=Cocaine]Funeral Doom is pretty polarizing and a good 50-70% of what you hear is going to be awful, plodding and mindlessly boring. [/quote]
Couldn't agree with you more.This Message Edited On 08.22.08
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I might try my hand at writing a funeral doom this week. I'll have lots of time between shifts to just listen to music and write.
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What album are you considering reviewing?
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Asunder - Clarion Call most likely.
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Oh ok. I've seen the name before, but haven't listened. I'll keep an eye out for your review.
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^^123. I'm considering doing one for The Gates Of Slumber although not funeral.
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It's really good, at least I like it. Their newest album is solid but there's a 50:00 minute track that's more or less noise for a good 25:00 minutes. But yeah, I think you'd like them actually, but we'll see if I get to review it.
On Topic, I think this cover would be better without the text. The font is lame.
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Sweet, I'll try and find some time to listen to it before your review. I like the font actually, it works well with the whiteness that goes around the right top corner (IMO). But then again, it'd be pretty cool without the text as well.
Also for future reference, don't assume that all I listen to is funeral doom :P Worship is basically the only funeral doom band that I listen to consistently, most others I'll put on very rarely.This Message Edited On 08.22.08
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[quote=Cocaine]Asunder - Clarion Call most likely.[/quote]
I only have Works Will Come Undone. How is Clarion Call?
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Much, much better. Works Come Undone fits its name because it starts off so excellent but the second track just kills it with the 25 minutes of nothing that it ends on. Works is still great, but Clarion Call is special. The only funeral doom album I listen to at this point.
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