Doom is a great form of metal. It embodies all the 'darker' and 'muted' emotions, ranging from fear to despair. Death on the other hand embodies all of the more vibrant mindstates like rage, intensity, and passion. Combine the two and you get a frolicking gloom that expands to encompass all that you know. Riffs swirl to convoke demons or consecrate corrupted mausoleums, while ceremonious drumming brings horrors forth from dimensions far beyond human understanding. The sound is massive and thunderous like the roar of a behemoth crawling through the darkness. That's what listening to Incantation or Funebrarum is like, and it's the sound Encoffination wishes they had.
They do an alright job of mimicking the style on O' Hell, Shine In Thy White Sepulchres though. As an album I've put off reviewing for quite awhile, I feel like it's had ample time to grow on me. Initially I found the cavernous riffing to be a bit trite and uninspired, but now I just find them boring. The funeral procession begins strong with the entrance of the corpse on "Rites Of Ceremonial Embalm'ment," but the embalmer clearly had no idea what he was doing because the corpse continues to decay on later tracks, leaving nothing but the empty shell of a sound. There are some great uses of bells to administer a healthy dose of atmosphere on tracks like "Elegant In Their Funebrial Cloaks, Arisen," and the chants on "Pall Of Unrequited Blood" give way to some of the best riffs and grooves on the album. However for the most part, this is a funeral you'll want to get through quick and easy.
That won't happen since the pacing is as slow is molasses on O' Hell. With tempos set to 'off' tracks like "Washed And Buried" and "Ritual Until Blood" crawl along like watching bacteria rot out a skull. It's not a pretty sight, and it's not very fun to listen to either. Riffs are droning-level boring and make you want them over with quickly. The production is also relatively bassy if just fitting for this style of death doom. I can definitely give the album a definitive nod in the atmosphere department though - it just goes to show that atmosphere can't make an album.
6.5 out of 10
Tracklisting:
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