Funeral Circle – Funeral Circle (Full Length, 2014, Shadow Kingdom Records)

1. Scion of Infinity 

2. Amaranthine (Wandering Dreamer) 

3. Corpus of Dark Sorcery 

4. Tempus Edax Rerum 

5. The Charnel God 

6. Black Colossus 

7. Obelisk 

Canadian Epic/Traditional Doomsters Funeral Circle’s self titled first full length is quickly becoming my favourite. While I love Doom Metal in general (Death/Doom is my favourite), I have almost zero knowledge/interest in Epic/Traditional Doom. So, this is really an eye opener for me!

I would say it’s a crushing album (by Epic Doom standard) and liberally peppered with melodic solos, at times sounding Eastern influenced. My personal favourite would be opening track Scion of Infinity and The Charnel God.  Jeremy Hannigan’s (as this time of writing, has already left the band) baritone voice lent the epic feeling to the album throughout. It’s a nice touch really, sometimes borderline NWOBHM and gothic rock. Also, the whole album feels really sinister, and unsettling with its lyrical themes revolving around Lovecraftian and occultism. As this is a Doom Metal album, the pace is pretty slow.

While I think the instruments and vocals level are balanced, at times I found the overall sound are inconsistent and dropped significantly. Personally, that affected my listening experience, especially during guitar solos.The rest is fine with me. Still a fan though 🙂

For fans of: Reverend Bizarre, Witchfinder General, Candlemass.

Highlight(s): Scion of Infinity, Tempus Edax Rerum, The Charnel God.

Stream/digital download their self titled debut here.

Special thanks to Clawhammer PR for the promo pack. Sorry for the delay!