This is a re-release of an album by one of the first Finnish death metal bands, Funebre. Coming together in 1988, they split just four years later after their only album release, Children of The Scorn. This has now been re-released and includes some of their demo tracks.
From the off, it is obvious this is early death metal. The drums and guitars work together differently than in modern death metal, using each other to create a rich, yet not so deep, expressive sound. This also works as a backdrop for the deep gravelly vocals, which growl and rumble along. The music has a little in common with more popular metal at the time, especially with the higher riffs that punctuate some of the songs on the album.
The slower, more ponderous guitarwork creates a different depth in some of the songs, especially when taking into account the tolling of a bell in the background. The only bad thing that seems to come to light is the change in song, indicated by a lowering of the volume in one song and the rising of the next. However, hearing the prototype to death metal isn’t something you do everyday, and this is nice to hear, as well as being easy to listen to at times. It’s also nice to hear a Finnish band sing in English instead of the rolling timbre of Finnish lyrics
