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Funerary Bell > The Second Manifestation > Reviews
Funerary Bell - The Second Manifestation

Revealing a partial eclipse to their environment - 80%

Byrgan, December 31st, 2010

Funerary Bell is a Finnish black metal band that is subliminal with their message and delivery. The song writing is basic, the pacing is gradual and the composition is overlapped with layers.

The music is generating simplistic, subtle, often worked through harmonies. The production captures this with a simultaneously loud but slightly hidden projection. There aren't any sharp or traceable outlines and the sound comes with some purposeful tarnish to take away any potential gleam trying to escape their enclosing shroud. The guitars have a few tracks to close up noticeable gaps, the clean bass is slightly heard at various opportunities, and the snare and hi-hat are loudest on the drums, with the bass pedal getting mostly blended.

The momentum is between a slow and midpace on "At the Shrine of Sun-God" and "Kuolema," though "Rhymes of a Funerary Bell" picks up the speed to a moderate thrash beat and another with an energetic middle range. The structure can go for some repetition, such as maintaining set movements that slightly shift as the music unfolds and develops. The drums and bass can stand back while the guitars might use higher strings with a tad of melody. The bass occasionally breaks through with a noticeable rhythm that goes outside the main notes. The drummer can even toss in some tom hits with a certain rumbling effect that comes out when struck. The vocals give off some mysteriousness by periodically showing up with their deeper, throaty rasps, though they can occasionally sound distracted by having to construct them around playing another instrument.

The intro sounds like it was played in a remote location where time and gravity doesn't exist. It uses a few layers of clean guitar with arpeggios one over top of the other, while a blended bass is drifting somewhere in between. The cover of Mortuary Drape's "Necromancer" is a fitting one, as the original is just as primal and esoteric as Funerary Bell. Even if it wasn't, you can definitely tell where their influences came from on the first song. The issue with the original metal tracks is there are all too similar chord progressions between "At the Shrine of Sun-God" and "Kuolema." Where the opening track "Rhymes of a Funerary Bell" is variety laden and has more changeups and transitions to keep one busy and entranced with surprises, such as the various speeds and clean guitar that briefly shows its atmospheric face while the rest of the music is still unraveling. The first two mentioned songs sound like they could have been one longer meld and a listener might not have known the difference, due to the guitars being likewise openly strummed and played in a similar key and tempo.

"The Second Manifestation" is an atmospheric EP from this upstarting Finnish bm group that gives one a short glimpse into the window of their dark environment. It's a tamer recording than others in the genre, as there are no escalating speeds, over-the-top vocalizations or even completely piss poor sound to terrorize a listener. There's still a certain organic quality felt in their production and music, and to get it that way time was taken composing and essentially piecing it together while keeping in mind to erase their formulas of calculation. I wouldn't mind seeing what else they have to offer in the future, as already at an early stage they present themselves confidently and focused.