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!
I was sifting through some music on an old computer I don't often use anymore when I came across Midnight Odyssey's release from last year, Shards of Silver Fade. A monstrous two and a half hour display of ambient black metal crafted by an Australian multi-instrumentalist and vocalist who operates under the surname of Dis Pater. For years now, Pater has been responsible for a handful of metallic endeavors (primarily Midnight Odyssey). One of which is his Funeral Doom project, Tempestuous Fall. The project saw only one major, full-length release, but it carried such a large artistic weight. It served as a conduit for Dis Pater to wholly express his thoughts and problems through extreme doom.
The Stars Would Not Awake You was released in 2012 through I, Voidhanger Records and tracks at a few minutes more than an hour. Over five songs, Dis Pater's musical brilliance permeates through sorrowful Funeral Doom, with noticeable dashes of his efforts in Midnight Odyssey and The Crevices Below thrown in for good measure. Opening track, "Old & Grey" channels classic Death Doom acts such as My Dying Bride and Anathema as harsh growls grapple with operatic, crisp vocals over a chorus of strings. The inclusion of a session violinist for the album also helps to purvey a romanticized complexion within the music. This complexion is very apparent as the album progresses. Songs like "Marble Tears" and the title track seem to become even sadder as this aural funeral procession marches towards its emotive conclusion, in the form of "A Cold Stale Goodbye". The Stars Would Not Awake You's last and longest track turns all of the classical death doom and internal influences to their highest volume and puts an ominous and melancholic punctuation on Dis Pater's lone full-length project as Tempestuous Fall.
It is a bit of sad situation that there has only been one Tempestuous Fall record to this date. There is a split that Pater has released with music from all of his projects, entitled Converge, Rives of Hell, that features two other tracks from the Funeral Doom project. Pater has said his efforts to create this album have influenced the aforementioned Midnight Odyssey album, Shards of Silver Fade. Personally, seeing a full return of Tempestuous Fall would be a delight. In the meantime, check out The Stars Would Not Awake You below! If you would like to order a CD of the album, they can be found through I, Voidhanger's website and digital copies can be snagged through the Bandcamp page.
