HISTORY
They come from Finland, they started off as a death-metal band but then they changed their style and started to play very slow music.
Thergothon came to the world in 1989 - 1990, and they released probably the slowest album ever recorded. They have been claimed to be the pioneers of this genre called funeral doom, unfortunatly the band has been disbanded but they left one truly unique album to the world. Their style of music is very slow and then I mean slow, their music might seem yet pretty beautiful and mysitc but they have also mixed some elements from the death-metal genre as well. This is an album that you will remember because this is one unique album.
ALBUM INFORMATION
This album is called
''Stream From The Heavens'' and it contains six hyper slow songs, all of them are quite atmospheric, gloomy, calm, creepy and beautiful. I can't say that the songs are catchy but they will guarantee a new music experience. The songs are very slow and I have to agree with the back ground facts that this is probably the slowest album ever recorded (yet). The vocals in this album is most of the times deep growls but there are also some natural singing and /or speaking as well. The instruments are though nothing to praise about, the guitars are playing most of the times very extended and dark riffs. There are though some songs that has quite many riffs in them, but it still doesn't sound like other metal bands, truly a unique of music. There are also some drums in this album, this might be the only instrument that can deliver some speed sometimes, there are some quick drum rolls here and there but the drums also plays very slow most of the times as well.You can also notice some edited back ground sounds as well, these sounds makes this album so unique and special, sometimes I really got frigthened by the music but later I felt sorrow while listen to a song.
THE BAND MEMBERS
Niko Sirkia - This is one of two vocalists, it is very hard to describe these guys becuase I have never heard anything like thisbut I will do my best. I mentioned before that the vocals were both deep growling and natural speaking or singing. The growlings are good though, they make this creepy feelings in the songs from time to time, while the natural singing/speaking sounds pretty band. Their vocal range is bad, especially in the prolonged singing sections, their english is not flawless either. Good growls but bad singing.
Nikko Ruotsalainen - The only guitarist in this band, I'm not sure if I can call this guy as a good guitarist but the overall guitar sounds very cool. There is a depth in the guitar sound, I would describe the guitars as very dark and atmospheric, mystic and somewhat half-dense. These are no catchy sounding guitars but they still manages do grab the listeners attention, these guitars also helpsto create this spooky and highly creepy atmosphere in most of the songs.
Jori Sjuroos - This is the drummer and second vocalist of this band, I have already mentioned the vocals so I guess we can jump on to the drum part instead. These drums are very slow too, this drummer only uses slow-mode in his drumming, the patterns are incredibly slow and uncatchy. Though they provide some structure in the songs so they don't appear so boring, butis is the guitar that steals the show though.
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS ALBUM
I guess I may have equally as many positive thoughts as negative thoughts about this album, but we start with the positive thoughts. One thing I liked about this album was the fact that some songs had such an impact on me.
Yet The Watchers Guard was one of the songs that really made me feel uncomfortable, the song had a very creepy and evil atmosphere. Take the worst nightmare you have experienced and then put this song in the background and you will not be able to sleep, it happened to me though.
Elemental was one song that I thought was one of the overall good songs, the song still had this spooky atmosphere but it still had some variation in the song pattern. The song had a wider guitar and drum work, the vocals had a decent variety and the song didn't feel so similar to the other tracks.
Crying Blood And Crimson Snow was the song that made me feel sadness, almost great sadness. Remember a very sad time in your life and listen to this song and you may cry, the music might seem very uninteresting to most people but this material had this kind of impact on me, stupid might some of you think but other may agree with me. A second thing I liked was the really slow material, it truly was a unique sound, I prefer faster and heavier music but this stuff was not that bad. Why I liked this was most because of the guitar sound and the background sounds, this was slow music but there was this kind of depth and huge atmosphere in the material that really hooked me.
The bad things that I found in this material was the vocals, if these guys were skilled singers then this might have sounded even better. I give them some credit for at least trying to sing but other than that it sounded very bad, the growling parts were good but the singing was horrible. Their attempt to sing basically almost destroyed the atmosphere in the songs, luckly they don't sing like this all the time. One small thing I missed was some skilled singing, the material would been a whole lot better then, but I guess it would match the genre that good though, but, it just my own opinion. One huge thing I missed was guitar solos, maybe there are solos in the material but I think that sounded more like ''increased guitar work'', I can't find one single solo on this record though
MY CONCLSUSION
Definitely something unique here, I have encountered doom/death and I thought that sounded horrible but this so-called funeral doom was something else. I found this enjoying actually, the material was indeed very sluggish and hyper slow but the atmosphere and the depth in the songs grabbed my attention very good. And the way that the music hit me, this was both very creepy, sad and very mysterious music, but I liked it and thats the whole point. I have never heard anything like this so I would only recommend this album to doom-metal fans or funeral-doom fans. But I will recommend this album to you metalheads, I think this is an album that needs to get some attention, this was their only album it needs to be remembered. You might hate it, like it or love it, I like it becuase this is an very special music experience that metalheads should have experienced. Time to end this review now, I hope this has been an interesting review and I thank you for taking time to read it.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS
-- Crying Blood And Crimson Snow
-- Elemental
-- Yet The Watchers Guard
I do recommend the whole album, there are after all six songs so I suggest you try find the whole thing.
This album will be given a 3.5/5 because of the deep and atmospheric songs and for the overall unique materal
