Funeral is a Norwegian Doom Metal band that's been around for ages now. Contemporaries of Paradise Lost and Anathema but coming from across the channel, the band was one of the first to use female vocals and orchestration which has become almost mandatory these days.

The album starts with some soprano vocals and orchestration before the big opening riff of This Barren Skin opens the album. Funeral, like most European doom metal bands has the unnerving ability to come up with some memorable melodies. While it all sounds quite mournful and melancholy, the melodies stick in your head. Also, the interplay between the heavy doom parts and the softer melodic parts is done superbly. Title song From These Wounds is a mournful dirge of a song but the subtle orchestration and melody gives it a warm almost inviting feel.

Stand out tracks include the awesome opening song This Barren Skin along with the terrific Pendulum, which has some very discordant riffing that fits in well within the band's doom aesthetic and the comparatively short Vagrant God. At the same time, this is not an album where you can pick favourite songs. Like all of the best doom metal albums around, it's the collective whole that either works or doesn't and From These Wounds is an album that is packed with the kind of songs that should encourage mass suicide but is so damn beautiful at the same time that I don't think anyone's going to be reaching for a razor.

Musically at first glance the band seem to have a bit of a similarity with the early 2000's sound of the Napalm Records roster and over produced goth metal acts like Tristania and The Sins Of Thy Beloved. This though is only a surface similarity in that Funeral have the same kind of classical melodies but otherwise scant little in common with those bands. While stalwarts of the genre like Solitude Aeturnus and Anathema do get referenced, From These Wounds is a very European album. The feeling of melancholy and mournful clean singing, the melodic guitar parts and the symphonic touches are all reminiscent of Lacrimus Profundere's classic Memorandum album. At the same time, I have to say that by eschewing the use of female vocals, the band has managed to create an album that is similar in feel but far superior to Memorandum.

Tragedy struck the band shortly after the release of the album with the vocalist being found dead in his apartment thus casting a question mark over the future of this band. Still, From These Wounds is a terrific doom metal album that the band can be proud of and if you like doom metal even just a little bit, then this album is as essential as it can get.



Label - Candlelight
Year Of Release - 2007