Tomb of the Ancient King

This album is truly a masterpiece. If not much of a Funeral Doom listener, this album might appear a bit too hard to swallow, at first. The dark and mysterious atmosphere of this album is almost hypnotizing. The drums and guitars are very straightforward, but it adds on to the rawness of the production. The screeches are loud and powerful almost painful, again adding to the dark atmosphere.
The album starts out with “Epejumalat Monet Tesse Muinen…” which is a 30 minute track. Church bells are heard in the beginning and than at around 2:25 the slow and heavy drums and guitars kick in along with screeches which continues on, until about 16:50 where it changes its pace and becomes slightly heavier. Eventually it gets back to its original pace at around 26:01 and follows through. The track ends with the church bells, which it began with in the beginning.
The next track, “Tomb of the Ancient King,” just starts out powerful with the drums coming in first than the vocals and guitars. It changes it’s pace at around 6:27, picking up the speed just a little bit in the drumming, than goes back at around 7:20 to it’s original pace. The vocals are very prominent, along with the drumming and towards the end it emulates that of a heart beat. One can really feel the hate, ugliness and the evilness that the band portrays very well in this track.
Than the album ends with “Return of the Ice Age and the Tortyrant,” and once again very moving atmospheric track. The track goes on just like the other two -- powerful heavy guitar stringing and drumming with a touch of deep and heavy vocals.
If you’re looking for soul crushing Doom, this is the band for you. However, it is an acquired taste, therefore, may take a few listens before one can actually appreciate it. Though the drumming and guitaring are very simplistic, it is combined and done very well. Fans of this kind of music should definitely check out Senthil, another Funeral Doom act, which is very similar to Wormphlegm.