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 pipe organ is an emotionally versatile instrument. The sounds associated with the massive contrivance are tied to some of the life's most intimate moments. It is played for the beginning of new unions, the resolution of life, and religious ordinances. These moments are precious and stick with the involved. Many can recall these personal moments visually or remember sounds from these instances in time. Czech Republic's Quercus sought to bring together this vibrance from the organ to another source of elegance in nature.
Quercus, latin for "oak", weds the harmony between temples and nature through the utilization of the pipe organ in Heart With Bread. The Pilsen trio has been an active band for around 16 years now and throughout their time in existence, they have eight releases, three of which are full-length albums. This newest full-length, which was released earlier this week through Solitude Productions, features five songs loaded with unique takes on Funeral Doom Metal. The church pipe organ is featured heavily immediately and throughout. Album opener, "A Canticle for the Pipe Organ" is a 22-minute barnburner complete with a three-minute opening section exclusive only to the organ and its accompanying church bells, it seems to signify the new marriage between the temples and nature that Quercus conveys. The remainder of the album tracks a similar vein as the monumental opening track. Heart With Bread also features a cover of famous composer, Arvo Pärt's "My Heart's in the Highlands".
Heart with Bread is a vivid display of Funeral Doom Metal. Pulling inspiration from bands like Skepticism and Esoteric and weaving them through a union of serenity and melancholia adrift in a woodsy atmosphere. It is a deeply and emotionally complex album that keeps even a casual Doom Metal fan intrigued. Quercus's newest album has some of the year's most poignant moments in metal and a lot of it is due to the beauty of the pipe organ incorporated into each song. Heart With Bread is highly recommended for someone looking for a different spin on metal music.
