Review Summary: With a little more focus on the few elements that did add value, Funeral Fornication could certainly release an album worth listening to, but this experience leaves much to be desired.
Funeral Fornication is yet another one man band from Hypnotic Dirge Records, which seems to be a breeding ground for musical geniuses that refuse to share the wheel with other artistic minds. Obviously that can be a bad thing as well as a good one, and while there are incredibly strong artists and albums coming from the label, there are a few that fall short in terms of creativity. The man behind the music on this album has tried very hard to create mystery in regards to himself, even going by the singular and cryptic name Vultyrous. Regrettably this is where the allure ends, as
Pandemic Transgression seems to be a very by-the-book black metal album. The depressive sound that is in full effect here has been done before, and falls short of lofty expectations in regards to the hype it was given. It was lauded as an ambient, depressive black metal sound that had not been delved into in this way before; unfortunately, the sound seems disjointed and lacking in a definitive direction. Vultyrous favored the darker aspects of the sound over what could have been an epic and emotionally hard-hitting album, glossing over the small details that made
Pandemic Transgression listenable in the first place. The symphonic elements are entirely cheesy and utilized too much, clashing with unimpressive harsh vocals and guitar riffs that meander for longer than their welcome stay.
There are some elements that do work in the realm of Funeral Fornication, as the clean vocals that pop up every now and then are surprisingly strong, which is not incredibly common in the genre. The cleans that come out of nowhere on "Twin Suns" are both fitting to the sound and incredibly sinister, which is a big draw for the genre itself. The issue here is that the singing is gone as soon it graces the listener's ears, leaving one to wonder if Vultyrous was attempting to consciously restrict how often it appears on the record. The main detractor to
Pandemic Transgression as a whole is the lack of cohesion between the ambient parts and the heavier passages, as well as Funeral Fornication's decision to stay in one place for far too long. "Glacial Ceremony" is a perfect example of this, as an orchestral sound fills the entire middle part of the eight-minute song, ultimately boring the listener and not really adding any value to the song as a whole. The majority of the songs trample through quite a bit of middle ground, focusing on a noncommittal slower pace that doesn't build up to any frenzied crescendos or finale. It seems only to exist, which is certainly a shame here. The haunting guitar line that appears at the halfway mark of "Of Fornication and Folklore" is ethereal and unrelentingly passionate. It is a travesty that the song sputters after that, not really able to connect it to another powerful passage of music. It truly is a situation that plagues the album in a very obvious way from beginning to end.
I can safely say that there are not many redeeming qualities of
Pandemic Transgression. The album plods along at a medium pace and really doesn't do much to differentiate itself from many releases of the same ilk. The things that are somewhat different aren't transcendental, and actually end hurting more than helping anyway. The horror movie-esque sound effects used in "Transgression Pt 2 and 3" are simply too over the top to add any dramatic value to the album, and it actually ends up cheapening the vibe that Vultyrous is obviously going for. With a little more focus on the few elements that did add value, Funeral Fornication could certainly release an album worth listening to, but this experience leaves much to be desired.
