Review Summary: The beautiful bastards that started all the hard riffing that Finland is known for.
When we're talking about Finnish death metal the obvious albums such as
Nespithe,
Psychostasia,
Slumber of Sullen Eyes,
World Without God,
Musta Seremonia, and others of that nature are always the first to be mentioned. And with good reason, all of those albums are fantastic and some of the best to come out of Finland. However, one album seems be lost among the pack and it's the very album that pretty much started it all. The album in question is
Children of the Scorn by Funebre. Being released in 1991, this album came before any of the aforementioned classics from the icy land of Finland.
Children of the Scorn has a little bit of a different feel than some of it's contemporaries. First off, the production is even more lo-fi. There is a noticeable buzzsaw sound to the guitars, almost similar to something from the early black metal scene. The drums are a little lower in the mix as well. The production isn't a negative thing at all though, if that's where you thought I was going with this. Funebre are basically the band that taught all the ones who came after them how to riff and have that signature Finnish death metal sound. A lot of the riffs here seem to be inspired by early heavy metal bands and then also add a death metal twist to them, which is what makes this album stand out. There are plenty of ball crunching solos, even if they are relatively short ones. Congenital Defeat contains the best solos on the album. This album also brings a little bit of doom into the mix. See the beginning riffs in the third track, Blood On White for some sweet and crushing dooming. Those parts are mostly short-lived as well though. Another positive thing about the production is that fact that the bass is audible and you don't find that on a lot of metal albums. If you listen close enough, you'll hear some very awesome baselines scattered throughout the album. Vocally, this is full of very deep guttural growls. Basically what you'd expect out of a death metal album.
While
Children of the Scorn may not actually be better than some of the classic death metal albums that have come out of Finland, there wouldn't be any classics without this album. It basically layed down the foundation for bands like Adramelech and Demilich to put out their classics and is still paving the way today for bands like Hooded Menace and Stench of Decay who are some of the up and coming death metal bands to come from Finland. So if you love this style of death metal, and I know you do because it's the best, then you damn well better be thanking Funebre for putting this album out.
