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!
This week takes Funeral Doom Friday the southeastern, Russian port city of Nakhodka. Lurking beneath the bustling trade routes between Russia and Japan is Atmospheric Funeral Doom band, Mohraang. The one-man force spearheaded by Maahzur Phalmorg has released its first full-length album, entitled Underworld of Khorrendous. The album was independently released back on September 1 and features six songs covering 33 minutes of Death and Funeral Doom tinged with ethereal, ambient sections. Relative to other featured albums in this column, it does run short. That does not mean it lacks the magnitude that many Funeral Doom albums carry.
Each of the six tracks are named as Parts I – VI and span anywhere from four to 13 minutes. "Part I" introduces Mohraang through an ominous instrumental prelude. As "Part II" opens, dripping water and echoing guitars create a feeling of a damp, cavernous Hell. Phalmorg's deep, bellowing growl rumbles out from the pooling water and reverberates from the walls of the vault. The entirety of Underworld of Khorrendous flows languidly between instrumental songs and brief moments of vocal arrangements. It is a welcomed combination, what Phalmorg does best during the album is creating a dark, haunting atmosphere that engulfs a listener in a feeling of dread, like they are actually at the mouth of the Underworld.
Underworld of Khorrendous presents itself as quite the intriguing debut from this Funeral Doom project. Its songs, while short, capture much of the trademark horror or lament associated with this extreme subgenre. It also provides a brief snapshot of what Maahzur is capable of as time progresses and he hones his craft even more. For the time being, check out the debut below and purchase a digital copy of it through Mohraang's Bandcamp page.
