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.
For Spain's Womb, their doom metal is an homage to the classic tones from the 90's. Their second full-length album, Devotion to the Sea arrived back in mid-September. It packs an hour's worth of ethereal death doom into nine tracks. Swaths of My Dying Bride and Ahab (the recurring reference to ships and bodies of water certainly helps the comparison) appear throughout the album. They subtlely emerge and retreat like waves against a shoreline. "Vessel to Nowhere" and the title track centerpiece are certainly excellent examples of Womb's mission. There is a romanticized aura to much of their slow, plodding riffs much like the early Peaceville days.
Listen to Devotion to the Sea below. The album is available now on Bandcamp along with their other releases. Also, follow Womb on Facebook.
