Stream from the Heavens

Thergothon are listed in most places as being on of the originators of the funeral doom genre, which is a genre that only had a small amount of bands around the time this was released and still today this album seems to be one of the more original and progressive of the genre. The influence present on this release has really only recently come into fruition, now that funeral doom seems to be fully fledged and recognised genre. History aside this album stands the test of time and is still one of the monumental achievements of a relatively young form of extreme music.

Variation is one of the key elements of this release which makes it stand out from the pack even today. This has all the elements expected of a funeral doom band, but subtle characteristics mean this album feels more involved than most other funeral doom albums, not to mention more unusual. The first noticeable element when getting to grips with this beast, is the almost ridiculous delay on the guitar. The tone is that of deep and rumbling caves, feedback grating on every chord and every note, never leaving the listener in total silence. This is effective in a similar way to the more atmospheric black metal releases in that it washes over you so you can never escape the amazing psychedelic atmosphere this album creates.

The keyboards, while not omnipresent, are featured rather widely over the whole release and the best I can describe them is a rather sci-fi comparable sound, however complete with the guitar tone it is hard to envision any other sound working as well. The vocals are somewhat atypical also, being a very low but throaty growl combined with cleaner vocals which are at some times depressing or epic but at others rather enchanting and hopeful. This style takes some getting used to, especially the unusually gravelly unclean vocals, but they do not deter and in some occasions very much complement the unity of the music. When taken on their own some of the features of the album seem very unusual and as if they would never work, however when heard as a single entity it all creates a an epic and destructive sound.

Songwriting is probably one the most important factors when it comes to funeral doom. As the genre generally takes on an ambient or minimalist approach to instrumentation and song construction, the tracks have to keep the listeners interest. Luckily the songwriting in this release is as flowing and natural as it can be when working with this form of music as well as creating a spacey and mysterious atmosphere . Normally the guitar and keyboards introduce the wandering maze of these songs only to slowly grow into melodic phrases that, once creating the desired atmosphere, may wander off in another direction and create a different mood altogether. This leaves the listener always interested and the progression of the tracks can be compared to the telling of a wild and wonderful novel. The instruments appear to take it in turns providing the lead melody or the overwhelming mass of developing chords, producing not only a dreamy and vivid atmosphere but also well written songs that take you on a journey that actually goes somewhere. With this, Thergothon avoid a mistake that many funeral doom bands or others in a minimalist genre make, just leaving the atmosphere to drag out for ten minutes which never bodes well for repeated listens.

It also helps that the songs vary in length and never outstay their welcome, funeral doom should not necessarily be about filling the disk and the 45 minutes on display here I find a commendable length. There are sprawling and instrumentally diverse epics such as "Elemental", which features some truly staggering acoustic guitar chords that somehow work amongst the crushing fuzz of the electric guitar, which is preceded by a smaller piece that is just as intense. It seems to provide a small break from the crushing weirdness, featuring one of the cleanest sections of the album with only the keyboards and quiet acoustics, only to build into a mammoth end leading up to the aforementioned longer track.

Overall one could create comparisons to other leaders in the genre such as Skepticism and maybe dISEMBOWELMENT but this is a very different entity. Skepticism has the ethereal flow and epic atmosphere and dISEMBOWLMENT have the crushing and sudden death metal induced sections of their tracks. Thergothon have something very different though I feel, they don't just create an atmosphere, they tell a story of epic proportions incorporating gentle acoustics, clean and harsh vocals, bewilderingly fuzzy guitar tone and most importantly have created a compelling and progressive work in metal.