Funeral Mist - Salvation
Norma Evangelium Diaboli
Black Metal
10 songs (65:43)
Release year: 2003
Funeral Mist, Norma Evangelium Diaboli
Reviewed by Daniel

It’s very hard for an artist to craft a good album. An album that can be played from beginning to end with a reasonable amount of good music, and that manages to be interesting enough to be spun several more times. And then, there’s the almost impossible; the capacity to create a masterpiece, an album that manages to be amazing from beginning to end, that manages to present “new” elements each time the listener plays it, an album that manages to create a quasi-spiritual connection between the music and the contemplator. Well, I must say that Funeral Mist’s Salvation isn’t a good album, nor a masterpiece… no, those categories fall short to describe the magnificence of what I hold in my hands.

Salvation is in fact here to save Black Metal from everything that plagues it nowadays. You know what I’m talking about… I’m talking about the tons of bands out there that are comfortably copying (some even blatantly cloning) other bands, I’m talking of the self contemplating state in which this art form is falling. Salvation is here and it’s screaming “fuck the trends, fuck the molds, fuck conformity” and they’re delivering this message with a fist full of hate into the boring and irrelevant pale face of the old beaten man that is Black Metal.

I swear that I just can’t think of an album with such a violent aura as this one. Pure hate drives this mostly very fast Black Metal album from beginning to end. The guitars will rape every sense of peace right out of your mind and your heart will be fiercely intoxicated with adrenaline as if it had been shot straight into it Pulp Fiction style. And while the album seems to concentrate on violence mainly, there are huge amounts of melody buried under the panzer-like rhythmic section (I’ll get deeper into that later), made more obvious at moments, like in Perdition’s Light, where the guitar gets a bit more breathing space and the melody can be appreciated better.

If there’s something about this album that will immediately leave you in awe is Arioch’s vocals. Fuck the latest Marduk album, that was crap. When Arioch sings here you hear Satan himself through the speakers. I don’t have the least of doubt when I say this are the best vocals to be recoded for a Black Metal album in years. Many times you’ll hear three or even four vocal tracks with Arioch screaming, growling, roaring, and snarling (absolutely Satanic and blasphemous lyrics “Shine through me Satan, Yes, live now through this tool of yours, Live through me, O seditious star, and like a thousand suns shall I spread thy light”) with such hostility, emotion and intensity, the word hate will gain a new meaning for you, I kid you not.

Song structures have many twist and turns, but at the same time manage to never drop the extreme intensity even if the tempos drop for a while. This adds variety and gives the listener time to gather himself for the next assault, which will probably be fiercer than the previous one. Also there are moments when many things are going on at the same time, so expect repeated listening sections to fully grasp what’s going on.

Two other very important elements that make this albums so special are, first of all the production which is clear enough to be very listenable, but dirty enough to keep the morbid and decaying atmosphere intact; and secondly the genius use of samples. I won’t tell you what they sampled because that would ruin the surprise, but trust me, all the samples are used perfectly and add even more to this unholy mix.

I would also like to dedicate a paragraph to one of the best Black Metal drummers out there. Necromorbus not only plays with a very fitting style but also his approach, including the drum sound (you have to love that snare) is so special that it somehow adds power to the absolutely morbid atmosphere of the album. Many hails to this enormous musician.

Funeral Mist succeed in creating a Black Metal album that sounds equally fresh and pure, giving that sensation the early/mid 90’s Norwegian scene once gave by providing albums that where undoubtedly Black Metal, without lacking individuality. At the same time the album reaffirms Black Metal’s power to transcend the listener in a way few things can. Salvation is pure Black Metal rapture.

Killing Songs :
Daniel quoted 98 / 100
Other albums by Funeral Mist that we have reviewed:
Funeral Mist - Deiform reviewed by Goat and quoted 83 / 100
Funeral Mist - Hekatomb reviewed by Goat and quoted 85 / 100
Funeral Mist - Maranatha reviewed by Charles and quoted 90 / 100
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