Unto
The End We Call
Black Art
Hel's Hymn
Hill Of Skull And Bone
Of Death's Breath
Beckoning At The Black
The
avalanche of very samey music that has been engulfing the scene has slowly
eroded my creative juices. I feel like lazily writing ‘blah, blah,
black ambient…blah, blah very nice…blah, blah worth every
penny spent on it’ and getting back to the important things in my
life. Like porn and computer games. Computer games with additional porn
would be something to write about. Even better if it involved animals
of some sort. Of course I can’t do this as I owe it to the artists
who release their music to give a fair and unbiased view of their work…and
in my very small way help you, the reader, to make a choice as to whether
they are worth purchasing or not. Onto and upward with this Funerary Call
CD then.
The first thing that struck me about "Beckoning at the Black"
was the cover. Any cover with a black & white picture of a mausoleum
full of decaying corpses works for me. It immediately tells you the type
of music you‘ll hear. That plus the groups name of course. It may
confuse Death Metal fuckheads but who gives a shit about those wankers.
I don’t and neither should you. I’m also partial to a good
song title. Naming your tracks after numbers is so lame and shows no imagination.
Give me ‘Hel’s Hymn’ (their spelling not mine),
'Hill of Skull and Bone’ or ‘Black Art’
as Funerary Call have and I‘m a happy little bunny. Creative you
see. Having discussed the cover and song titles it’s time to delve
deeply into the meat of the music that Funerary Call has to offer.
"Beckoning at the black" is six tracks of sheer black orchestral
ambience with the requisite crunching drums and whispered / distorted
vocals. Add to this the ominous waves of electronics, the odd piano piece,
very popular nowadays within this style of music, a little drone like
passage and…shit on a stick…what sounds like a panpipe in
full flow. The music created gives the perfect impression of creeping
unease and discomfort and ever impending dread that it‘s ultimately
trying to convey. A sort of nightmare music for the nightmare generation.
Funerary Call aren’t going to win any prizes for originality with
"Beckoning at the Black" but that probably wasn’t in their
thoughts or plans anyway. What they have given us is a recording suitable
for those ‘closed curtains and lights out’ scary & chilling
music moments we all so desire at some point in our lives. To this end
"Beckoning at the black" is an undeniable success and a worthwhile
addition to anyone’s black ambient collection. Blah, blah, fucking
blah.
ANM