Step into Damnation

Now this is what I’d call the typical 80 points album. I always found production (or lack thereof) to be one of the most important elements in death metal, perhaps even more than other metal subgenres. But that’s a discussion best kept out of this review. The reason I mention this is because the production here is precisely what this music needs save a few small details.

What Funeral Whore does, is playing death metal in truest demo-era Grave tradition and a clear nod to ancient bands from Finland like Abhorrence with a few added elements. A BoltThrowerish melody in one song, a short Autopsy-like twin guitar section in ‘El Salvador Death Squad’, a main riff on the chorus of ‘Pierce My Flesh’ that could’ve come straight from any of the first Gorefest demos and last but not least: heavily Asphyx influenced creepy melodies throughout the album. The ghost of Eric Daniels clearly haunted this band. Furthermore this band clearly demonstrates an understanding of old school death metal instead of just claiming to play old school and then resorting to breakdowns or too much blast beats.
Changing of pace happens quite a lot on the album, not a single blast beat to be found but plenty of d-beat polka bashing and slow sections.

All well so far, so why not more than 80 points? I won’t say because of the lack of originality since that doesn’t influence my enjoyment at all. Hard to expect originality if you’re going back to 1991 so clearly as Funeral Whore does on ‘Step into Damnation’. No, it has more to do with the quality of the material which is decent to good with a few highlights. There is not an instant classic song here like the Dutch bands of old could pull of in terms of catchiness or superb riffs but the average quality of the material easily surpasses that of the Dutch second rate death metal artists from the real 89-91 era. Much better than anything Sinister has ever done, not close to the Gorefest demos or the first two Pestilence albums. Etc, you get the point. Had this album been released in 1991 it would’ve gotten a lot of attention by media and fans although I suspect the following by now would’ve only been the die hard death metal fanatics and not many outside that niche. That doesn not take away the fact that this is just a damn fine death metal album within the boundaries set 22 years ago.

Vocally the band is I perfect working order, again balancing between decent and good, although I have to admit the one time I saw this band live, the vocals came much more to life in a live setting with added reverb and a much more dynamic performance. So hopefully on a future release the band manages to make some progress as they have shown on stage already.

A few songs are worth mentioning. Opener ‘Eternal Genocide’ has it all, the changes in pace, catchiness and a melodic lead. If you like this tune, you’ll certainly enjoy the entire album.
The intensity, catchy chorus and tempo of ‘Obedience’ were instantly a personal fave on the album. Which also can be said about probably the two catchiest songs on the album: ‘Pierce My Flesh’ and ‘El Salvador Death Squad’ which also are the best tunes here.