It’s the weekend! What better way to get it started than with the latest installment of “Funeral Doom Friday”. This weekly column looks to shed some light onto some of the darkest, most depressing, and discordant metal out there. Funeral Doom stems from the deepest depths of Death-Doom and Dirge music. Each week, the goal is to highlight some of the newest music or rediscover classic works from some of the earliest bands and originators such as Australia’s Mournful Congregation, United States’s Evoken, UK’s Esoteric and the Finnish Thergothon. Feel free to share your opinions and suggestions in the comments!
The Australian Illimitable Dolor formed out of members of the funeral doom band, The Slow Death. Many fans of the preceding band are aware of how great the band is. They have been a mighty force for nearly a decade now. Unfortunately, in 2014 vocalist, Gregg Williamson passed away. Out of tragedy, Illimitable Dolor was formed. The newly-anointed sextet started the band in tribute to Williamson. Early this coming spring, they will be releasing their self-titled debut. Funeral Doom Friday is excited to bring its first premiere of the year, a new song from that album.
Grief and loss can be powerful motivators. Such is apparent on "Abandoned Cuts of River", the closing track of the album. Illimitable Dolor uses a classic and atmospheric brand of death doom. At over 12 minutes, "Abandoned Cuts of River" is a commanding composition. The employment of a dual-vocal approach combined with an organ-like keyboard calls to a Peaceville era of melancholy and metal. The closing piece dances the line between modern funeral doom and its ancestral death doom. Tempo shifts do well to keep a listener engaged and convey a sense of empathy for the loss felt by the members of the band. Its culmination, a sorrow-stricken ode to a fallen brother.
The self-titled album will be released March 22 through Transcending Obscurity. The album can be pre-ordered on Illimitable Dolor's Bandcamp page. Additionally, the band can be found on Facebook.
