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Too hollow and uncharasmatic for what it attempts to achieve.-
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| Mental Funeral: Mental Funeral |
Death Metal, Doom Metal
Horror Pain Gore Death Productions
December 2nd, 2008
- Shadu - 0:58
- Grindfucker - 2:51
- The Sorrow of Winter - 5:06
- Refried Virgin - 5:24
- Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay (Autopsy cover) - 6:37
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| Review Information |
Release length: 20:54
Review posted on May 28th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| EP(s): |
Mental Funeral (2008)
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| Split(s): |
Mental Funeral / Generichrist (2009) • Annihilation / Devastation (2009)
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| Review |
While digging around some local used CD stores near me, I happened upon a band with a familar name. Mental Funeral, named after the album and song of the same name by Autopsy, is a bit of an interesting find. Or, at least, it was at the time. My interest was peaked a bit by the fact that it was from a Philadephia, Pennsylvania based label, which is still somewhat local for me, and eventually came to find out the band is indeed located in the same city. However, the deeper I dug, the more I started to realize this may not be an easy journey. Mental Funeral is actually a one man Death Metal and Doom Metal project that was formed by, and put out by the label of, the owner of Horror Pain Gore Death Records. So, basically, whether this release was total garbage or an epic success, it was still going to be pressed. So, which is it for this EP?
A lot of obvious influences became clear with Mental Funeral, and it wound up being the ones I completely expected. While there's a decent Autopsy influence to the recording, the music seems to also include some slower paced Doom Metal that is hard to pinpoint an exact sound to, but definately has a deep Mortician impression to the music as well, which was a given considering that band's impact in the New York and Pennsylvania areas. The production of the album is also about what one would expect from an underground label. The quality is a little raw, and the music isn't quite as rich as one would hope, but still gives off enough of a strong vibe to it that it feels a little menacing. This is mostly due to the volume level of the bass really taking over, and the one guitar that handles the rest of the material. The drumming is what winds up hurting the album though, as you can tell it's from a drum machine and doesn't feel anywhere near as rich as the guitars, and leaves the music sounding a the most hollow. When the guitars really pick up speed, like in the guitar solos on the album, such as the one towards the end of the slower paced Doom Metal inspired "The Sorrow of Winter".
But, outside of the drumming, one of the biggest factors that holds this EP back is the vocal performance. By listening to them, it becomes clear immediately that, whether intentionally done like this or not, they seem to emulate the deep, bass driven inhumanly gutteral vocals that Mortician uses, though simply does not reach that depth. The deep sound of the vocals aren't all that bad, and it doesn't really hurt the album to the point where you can say the sound horrible from the level they are performed at, though a much deeper sound would have greatly worked to benefit the release, it's the fact that they sound mumbled that kills it. On each track of the recording, it's as if the vocalist often simply did not care about the vocal performance. Sometimes they feel mumbled, like with "Grindfucker", or a little louder in volume with random spurts of real energy behind them that give it a dirty, morbid sound that emulates Autopsy like varied throughout "Refried Virgin".
With the general oversight of the faults of this EP out of the way, there needs to be some focus on the five tracks that make up the EP. The first track is an opening audio sample chunk entitled "Shadu" which clearly comes from one of the Hellraiser films. It's not a bad choice for the start of this EP, unlike some audio samples that leave you wondering what is happening, and it sets up a "Grindfucker" nicely, which is a stronger Death Metal song that seems to bring a little Grindcore influence to it, but not so much in the speed of the music. Again, the vocals to this song feel a little lacking, and simply come off dull. The same goes for "The Sorrow of Winter", which is a heavily Doom Metal song that, due to it's clearer raw overall quality, simply cannot capture the cold and burdening feeling the music is clearly trying to set up, and it causes the track to come off a little bland and drawn out. It's not a horrendous song, as it offers up some changes throughout the song that are subtle, but still give the track a little more variation, but again the vocals hold this one back. "Refried Virgin", however, kicks things back up again to "Grindfucker" speeds, and even a little faster. The vocals are a little more energetic, though the cymbols on this song from the drum machine just don't work and sound pretty much impossible as well.
While the original material and audio sample aren't the most horrendous, they aren't the greatest either. This leaves the final track, which is "Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay", a song originally performed by Autopsy. The track itself is actually really short, and perhaps the fastest on the album. In all it's actually two minutes eighteen seconds, and it shows everything working together. The music sounds rich and intense, the vocals have some extra kick to them, and the drumming has enough other music going on to drown out it's imperfections. But, after that it's mostly silence until around three minutes and thirty three seconds when a Tim Burton-esque chaotic keyboard sound kicks in to create a horrific enviornment that would work well with a horror movie, almost like something from a fading music box or perhaps on an ice cream truck that has a very twisted sound to it due to lack of care and upkeep. This all keeps building up and, eventually, builds right into what sounds like an introduction to one of the Hellraiser films with a more classical composition to it through a small symphony.
It's hard to sit down and call Mental Funeral absolute garbage. When you know it's the label's owner's solo project, it leads you to immediately walk in with low expectations, and those lowered expectations are met quite well and can at times surpass them. While Mental Funeral has some potential here and there with the recording, as well as shown with the cover of his obvious inspiration's song "Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay", it seems impossible that this project will ever be anything more then just an underground venture. If you're looking for something from the shadows of metal's underground bands, however, it's something worth checking out, but only at a cheap or reasonable price since the release does have some replay to it, but not enough that you'll leave it in your media playback device for days on end with the repeat button on.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
personal funds.
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