Finally, the weekend is upon us. What better way to kick it off than with the latest installment of "Funeral Doom Friday". For those who are new to this column; each week features a new or classic album from the realm of extreme doom. Much of funeral/death doom's might comes from an oppressive emotional weight and the use of death or black metal motifs (played at a trudging pace, of course.) Pioneers like Mournful Congregation, Evoken, and Esoteric have mastered this blend of dirge and destruction. For 25 years, they have methodically built compositions that stretch for dozens of minutes all while keeping fans enthralled. Time has elapsed since the days of Thergothon and much like the world around us, the genre has evolved. Today's modern bands contort the very construct of the genre, breeding darkly refreshing new work. Their work thankfully gives this column plenty of material to share.
Enjoy this week's post and check out prior features here. Please feel free to also share thoughts or suggestions for future installments in the comments section below or to me directly on Twitter.
"Supergroup" never seemed an accurate or fulfilling term for a band; a superficial descriptor given to a group featuring members of other prominent bands. It consequently short-changes the efforts of a collection of talent who have come together to create art. Perhaps it may explain why the international force of Wastes simply go by letters and their identities remain relatively hidden. To simply pigeonhole their efforts into spinoff material would be doing the group a great disservice. The talent behind Wastes is certainly immense. It is comprised of members from Mournful Dawn, Pantheist, and Ataraxie among others.
However, Wastes' music is an entirely different animal all on its own. Their new album Into the Void of Human Vacuity is a terrifying fusion of blackened menace and glacially-paced doom. Broken up into seven parts, each moment as ghoulish and horrifying as the last. Wastes switches between dizzying black/death riffs (like in "Part 4" or "Part 6") to lurching, towering passages of funerary might (see "Part 5") with great ease. Woven in between these different styles are ominous and cavernous sounds. Dripping water echoes from headphones, making the listener feel all too lost in a sprawling, dark abyss.
Also worth noting is the amazing album artwork created by the graphic artist, Tony Sandoval; whose love of doom metal and penchant for dark and often nightmarish artwork is most fitting for Wastes' new work. Listen to Into the Void of Human Vacuity below, follow the band on Facebook, and check out some of Sandoval's art as well.
