Passio et Mors...

The interestingly named Gallileous is an odd ball entry into the funeral doom field. This is one of those few bands that emphasis darkness and sheer heaviness over melancholy. There are no keyboards in this four piece, just all any band ever truly needs: guitars, bass and drums.

This is an uncompromising, hard hitting ball of darkness. The slow guitar dirges are similar in tone, sound and vitriol to diSEMBOWELMENT or perhaps Thergothon (if they were more aggressive). They plow through the air at near droning speed. At times the pace and attitude of Type O Negatives 'Slow, Deep & Hard' comes to mind. There are also many 'In Memorium'-era Cathedral riffs throughout the entire recording. Just slower, darker and heavier than Cathedral.

There is no subtlety on this recording, just heads down slow churned funeral doom, stripped to just the barest of bones. The speed is slightly uptempo from your average funeral band but they never lose their atmospheric intensity. There are only four songs on this criminally short (thirty-eight minutes) demo. The lyrics are all in Latin as well, which is just cool.

This is the bands only listenable recording too, everything following this is stupidly generic stoner rock, which makes this release all the more precious as it shows what might have been. Especially considering how insanely heavy this album is. This is pretty original stuff and each song kills. You will find yourself restarting it over and over every time the CD stops. This is a very welcome entry into the ever growing field of funeral doom.