Veil of Damnation

I remember an old interview from about 1996 where Thergothon main-man Niko Skorpio was given reason to mention Unburied, a band from Finland supposedly playing similar music during the same period as Thergothon. You know what, he was right, although it’s beyond mere similarity and plainly Thergothon hero-worship at its most obvious.

As Stream From The Heavens hadn’t been released at this stage Fhtagn-Nag Yog-Sothoth provides the mould. The guitar tone, drums and production values are practically identical, and while the scant keyboards are clearer and vocals are more powerful there is still an overbearing resemblance. However, despite this clear debt Unburied owed to Thergothon they gravitated towards more conventional music. For example, there are early Carcass-style death metal parts and clean-tone guitar while the prominent early 90s Casio keyboards sound cheap and commercial rather than dreary and mysterious. Nevertheless, all these aspects are in a definitive minority to the plodding funeral doom music as established by Thergothon that dominates.

But is it good? It’s a difficult question for me to answer as Thergothon have thus far been the only funeral doom band I’ve wholeheartedly enjoyed. I can say that the utterly alien aura they produced has not been replicated here, despite Unburied’s relative adherence to Thergothon’s template. There are numerous instances of good riffs, but these are counteracted by what appear to me to be truly aimless sections of workman-like trudging with no lyrics to infer anything extra into them. Still, if you’re a fan of funeral doom and enjoy Thergothon then by all means check it out; I give it a play if I’m in the mood for the Fhtagn-Nag Yog-Sothoth sound and not satisfied by the small trace left by the master.