Review Summary: Starting 2019 off on the right foot, the metal foot. m/
Well my friends, I’ve been stumped. Quercus is a band from the Czech Republic, and yes, their music is as weird as their name is.
Verferum is an album that is rooted in funeral doom but it definitely can’t be pigeonholed into that specific sound alone. Quercus is not your average funeral doom band folks.
First of all, I want one of you to think of some funeral doom albums that have 99% clean vocals and barely any demonic death growls from the pits of Hell... I can’t think of many myself, but that’s what Quercus does. And honestly, it works out heavily in their favor. The bleak and empty feeling of doom is still there but now all the hells of the world are being dug to you with operatic vocals. Isn’t that some ***....
The main thing that is unique about these guys is that there are extremely heavy avant-garde influences throughout the album. One minute you’re smack dab in the middle of an agonizing doom section and the next you feel like you’re in the circus. Some of these passages could’ve been pulled right off of an Arcturus album and you wouldn’t know the difference.
The final main point I’d like to make about this band/album is that you cannot have a short attention span to listen to it. If you’re familiar with this type of music then you probably know that, but if not then let me give you a little insight. It’s over an hour long and there are plenty of times where the music drags on and on with ambient and drone bits scattered all over the place. If you listen carefully you can understand how important it is to the overall feeling of the album. However, if you need music that’s riff heavy and in your face at all times, Quercus isn’t the band for you.
A lot of people think funeral doom is boring and pointless. Others think of it as a terrifying journey into the eye of death itself with the atmosphere to back it up. The choice is yours.
