It’s a tricky business being the only remaining original member of a band more than thirty years after its creation. I don’t know how many members you have to replace before you’re in Ship of Theseus Paradox territory, but surely Anders Eek is there with his long-running Norwegian doom outfit Funeral. I suppose it’s one thing if the last remaining OG is the vocalist, since the human voice, unfairly or not, will always be the default through-line. It almost doesn’t matter what the music is doing, if the voice is familiar, it’s easy to say “See? It’s the same band.” But Anders Eek is not the vocalist. He’s the drummer. On Gospel of Bones, Funeral’s seventh LP, bassist Rune Gandrud joins Eek as the only returning members from 2021’s Praesentialis In Aeterum.1 Unstable as the band’s lineup has been, they’ve managed to remain a respected voice in doom circles, thanks to a solid discography and their role as early pioneers of funeral doom.
So how do the new members affect Funeral’s sound on Gospel of Bones? We’ll go from least to most impactful. It’s not quite fair to say that new guitarist Stian Kråbøl is a plug-and-play option since he’s obviously skilled at laying down a big doom riff, but Funeral have always had those, and Anders Eek is the main songwriter these days. Strings specialist Sareeta (Ingvild Strønen Kaare) has a much larger impact, as she alternates between violins and the traditional Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle, heard in cuts like “Procession of Misery.” Where the band may have relied on programmed symphonic elements in the past, Sareeta now fills songs out with live string tones ranging from warm to strident. This would be a significant enough change, but we haven’t discussed new vocalist Eirik P. Krokfjord. First, look at what a pleasant, eager looking fellow he is. If you hit play on the embed already, you’re probably trying to reconcile that cherubic visage with the bass-range operatic singing that marks a massive shift in sound from the last Funeral record. Between Krokfjord’s vibrato, Sareeta’s strings, and the complete absence of death growls, Gospel of Bones drops all remainder of death doom in favor of gothic classicism, like a cross between My Dying Bride and Candlemass.
Assuming you’re already down with gothic funeral doom in general, how much you take to Gospel of Bones will rely completely on your reaction to Krokfjord. In spite of my usual aversion to cheese in metal, I find it works. Funeral have always been good at pulling drama out of slow tempos, and when the riffs, violins and Krokfjord’s operatic flair are firing on all cylinders, as they are on opener “Too Young to Die” or “My Own Grave,” the results are Wagnerian. This drama is amplified on the few occasions when Kråbøl is allowed to cut loose with upbeat riffing (“These Rusty Nails”) and soloing (“Når Kisten Senkes”). Altogether, Eek has assembled a band and sound that helps set Funeral apart from the increasingly crowded field of doom metal in a similar way to how Tragedies stuck out in the mid-nineties.
That said, 67 minutes is a lot of operatic singing to digest. Krokfjord obviously has range beyond his bass bellowing, but he rarely uses it. By the time “To Break All Hearts of Men” and closer “Three Dead Men” roll around, with Krokfjord singing in a detached, straightforward style, it seems oddly late in the game to introduce variation. Way back in the opener, Sareeta sings counter-melody on “Too Young to Die.” It works nicely, and I’m not sure why they don’t use it more. There are also a couple moments when the singing strays past dramatic and into silly, like the overpronunciations on “Procession of Misery.” Suddenly Krokfjord sounds less Wagnerian and more like monastic singing when Brother Johan forgets that being fancy is sinful and gets a little carried away. Gospel of Bones is stylistically concentrated. Enough so that it took me several listens to realize nothing, in particular, stands out from a songwriting perspective. There are no bad songs, but nothing here is so well written that it transcends the overall sound.
As with most off-kilter vocal choices, Krokfjord’s contributions to Funeral’s seventh full-length will likely make or break one’s enjoyment of it. For the most part, they work for me, and the interplay between heavy riffs and Sareeta’s lovely violin and fiddle playing is a treat throughout Gospel of Bones. It’s all just on the edge of being too much style over substance, but I can foresee occasions when this will scratch a specific itch.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: funeraldoom.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/funeralnorway
Releases Worldwide: October 18th, 2024
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