.:main:. | .:bio:. | .:discography:. | .:press:. | .:links:. PRESS Reviews for: 'abyssus abyssum invocat' Metal Archives I have to say in all honesty that this CD is different from the norm of most metal. I came across Funerary Dirge while going on a search for all metal that was industrial. Abyssus Abyssum Invocat (AAI) was differant from all other metal I had ever heard. When the first song plays you know that you are going to be in for one slow and intense, soul crushing ride. Forget most of what you know about the metal of the norm. There are no guitars or bass used here. The instrumentation used consists of a piano and keyboards. When the first chord hit I knew this was something different. The music is hauntingly eerie, and romantic. The ambience of the music has calmed my soul many times. The vocals are almost non-existant. They are there, but it is very slow. Mixed with the ambience, the vocals blend together with the instrumentation. Every lyric sounds like a hollow, doom filled passage that only a select few will be able to understand. I give this CD a 90 because every metalhead needs a slow doom CD to calm them down at night, or at day. I must also add that this cd is a great cd to listen to when you want to go to sleep with some music on. Score: 90% Reviewed by: PsuedoGoatKill I am always pleased when I find a good doom album released for free by the bands themselves. With so many good new bands releasing their music for free I'm a really happy man. Matt Zuchowski is the man behind many of those bands and projects whose albums is distributed freely, including this one. An interresting note is that he is also one of the main moderators of the doom-metal.com website itself. Not to mention the one guy who has submitted the most bands to the sites list. Truly a man dedicated to the doomy pages of the chronicles of metal. As with so many doom bands there is a few things that make it hard to put under one category. The funeral doom has been heavily mixed with industrial and ambient to the point where it becomes a dronelike funeral doom. As so often it seems that doom cannot be kept in a cage. The only instruments used is a piano, a violinlike synth, the dirging bass and the drums. The piano has two purposes for existance, both equally minimalistic. The first, like the violinlike synth, makes sad, yet serene ambient passages of melody. The second is minimalistic to the point of being nihilistic as the darker notes of the piano aids the darkening atmosphere of the bass. The most noticable feature is the extremely distorted dragging bass which with it's somewhat harsh sound, crawls along an eternally vast, dry, desert. The subsonic growling vocals sneaks echoing in and out of the music, adding a sort of ghostlike feeling to it all. Like this is the words of someone duying, or maybe even already dead. The whole picture of the music is a very minimalistic depression which just seems to linger on and on. The lyrics are just as depressive and minimalistic as the music. There is not a single word in them that could by any means be mistaken for being uplifting. As so often is with funeral bands the lyrics has their focus on death and damnation. Gods are mortal inventions, and just as great an illusion is the joys of life. As already noted the vocals sounds as if made by a dead or dying. The impression is only strengthened by the ageless negativity filled with insight, that seeps through the lyrics. The insight is into both the dying and the already passed away. The lingering sadness wanders from love, to death, and to the things in life that wants us to believe life is good. Yet the only real truth amongst them is death. The other two are merely illusions. Thus when the illusions have been met and disbelieved, all that remains is to kill the hollowness, and embrace the truth, death. Interpretation of the tracks: -Procession Of Gods And Tyrants: enters monotonously in a very nihilistic piano solo. The first two and a half minutes carry on this way, spreading a silent atmosphere of depression. Then the buzzing dirge of the bass sneaks its way in through the silence and makes it a grimmer and more untolerable place to be. The hollow vocals seep in as if made by a ghost barely present in this world. The lyrics speak of, as the title of the song says, gods and their tyrants. This is in essence a truth about the illusions that gods exist, like the tyrant preachers claim them to be. Instead the shining knights flash their armor to cath peoples eyes on their brilliance, just to keep the eyes away from their pale horses of deceit. -Eternal, And Yours: The track continues in much the same place as Processions Of Gods And Tyrants left except for that the bass leaves an even grimmer and more harsh taint in the music. The vocals has also grown stronger and darker, leaving much of the silence in the music behind. This time the lyrics speak of an old and well known tale amongst the depressive side of doom metal. Ones own death caused indirectly by the death of a truly dearly beloved. Life has a tendency to loose all of the joy and laughter that made it such a good place to be, and instead turns into a cold playground for haunting memories to play. But once the rist is cut, the blood flows, and one slowly returns closer to ones loved ones side. -The First Temptation: has a dirge that is only a faint remnant of the harshness heard in Eternal, And Yours. The vocals has faded slightly as well, giving the silence back to the music, and the vallowing in lifetiredness can once again continue. Although the music grows slightlys tronger again in the middle, it is still nowhere near the previous track. The name of the track is hard to compare to the lyrics of the track as the lyrics at first glance seems like a wish for death, then slowly the image seeps in. This is a song about the first time that the thought of suicide crosses behind weary mans eyes. All the glory days has passed and the wish for death is beginning to sink in, and as the only thing that could make things good again, death, is so forbidden, the first time is but a dangerous temptation... Score: 95% Reviewed by: Insignium funeralart.net This EP like album which can be sampled at http://funerarydirge.funeralart.net is truly dark ambient music at it’s finest. It's a release of three mind settling tracks that manage to flow through the pits of your soul. This album is technically a sample for the upcoming release of "Funerary Dirge: 'Prologue: Memoria in Aeterna'". The title of this album, however--'abyssus abyssum invocat'--is Latin for 'hell calls hell'. The first track, 'Procession of Gods and Tyrants' starts off with a slow piano melody that I find is too repetitive for my taste. However, this is the point of the album, to be slow and melodic. There are times when I listen to this track and I wish the tempo would pick up, but after listening to it while keeping myself busy, I realized it is perfect the way it is. It brings a sense of time being still in my life, which allows me to dwell on what needs to be done and what I have done already. Three minutes go by of time being still in my life, when the music changes into a more harsh environment. Deep growls of immense proportions flow through the forefront of this song, with deep bass gongs, while the tempo picks up speed. It feels now as if I am rushing to get out of stilled time. My heart is beating with excitement as a new ambient background melody is played... and although still repetitious, it captures my interest as everything quiets down, slowly, deeply... into the unknown. The second track, 'Eternal, and Yours', starts off with similar melodic beats as the ending of the first track. It really adds to the album in a sense you still want keep listening to it, in an effort to figure out what this album really means to oneself. Intentional or not, there comes foreground music that is very similar to a Chinese tempo; it really adds to the neat background already. Safe to say I feel at peace, and was amused and surprised as I caught myself actually dancing to this track with my girlfriend--unintentionally. It has a way to capture the soul of the listener, and do things you wouldn't otherwise expect. The last track, 'The First Temptation' continues with the same deep, wind like growls. This seems to be even darker, like one really is awaiting the pits of hell to rise up and snatch whatever spirit one has left. The tempo appears to slow down, and it feels like the devil himself is breathing in my ear. I hope I don’t have nightmares listening to this cool track, because I might find myself waking up in my own puddle. Overall the album so far is dark, mysterious and melodic. It is slow and repetitious grant you, and is not made for every day listening. I also believe that for most people this would be an aquired taste. This album is obviously not meant for a wide range audience, but an audience that is into this style will definitely not be disappointed. I myself look forward to the completed album, expected to be released no later than January 2004. Score: 47/60 Reviewed by: Cory Crete Dead Mourner Abyssus Abyssum Invocat est la première sortie du groupe Funerary Dirge, un groupe composé d'un seul membre, DarkDread, musicien qui officie également dans les groupes suivants : Alone in Silence, Nothing At All, On My Grave (oui, ce ne sont que des groupes de doom). A vrai dire, je ne connais aucun des groupes sus-cités, et j'ai découvet celui-ci au cours de mes errances sur le net. D'après le site officiel du groupe, cet album contient "plus de 30 minutes de funeral doom industriel, monotone et ambient". Il n'en fallait pas plus pour me décider, et je dois avouer qu'après écoute je ne regrette pas du tout de m'être laissé tenté. Plutot sceptique au début, je dois admettre que ces 3 chansons font naître une ambiance sombre et depressive assez remarquable. Niveau musical, c'est le minimalisme qui prime, avec une production assez faible, très peu d'instruments, pas de vocaux (ou presque, il m'a semblé entendre deux ou trois vocaux, faibles et lointains, sur "Eternal, and Yours"). Les chansons sont longues mais rien d'excessif (12 min maximum). La partie "industrielle" se limite aux intros, à un bruit de fond, et à quelques intermèdes. A noter des parties de piano, simples, répétitives, mais efficaces car bien placées et expressives. Je ne saurais donc que vous conseiller d'y jeter une oreille, d'autant plus que les morceaux sont téléchargeables intégralement sur le site officiel du groupe. Reviewed by: ? Score : 7/10 (c) 2003 Funerary Dirge. Falls under 'fair use' rights.