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Great review. This album is awesome.

I agree with the reviewer that Ahab is the best "funeral doom gateway band", problem is, this album is pretty minimal on funeral doom. I think a track like "The Hunt" from The Call of the Wretched Sea works a lot better at actually introducing the genre. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqdESsYWS9c&feature=related

Jaime doesn't like the growled vocals, favoring instead the cleanly sung While Heaven Wept styles...well ok, but that is where I think Ahab is leaving funeral doom behind. So why not just have Ahab make an album that is a slightly heavier While Heaven Wept record? Heck Aeons Elapse feels like an old Neurosis track in places.

Btw--Not saying the album is necessarily bad, or that Ahab evolving is a bad thing, just don't see it as representative of funeral doom in any way.

Lol @ funeral doom gateway band, its not as if the genre gets anymore interesting. How do these guys get reviewed over the new Ea or Evoken is beyond me, these guys are good but get monotonous like any band in that boring subgenre.

Good point, the new Evoken is more boring, and thus ought to have been reviewed according to your genre criterion.

the new evoken is pretty friggin good in my opinion. but i like the genre.

Have you honestly even listened to it? Its as layered and varied as any of their past work, I honestly think you have no clue what you are talking about.

Of course I've listened to it. It is decent, solid funeral doom, but not as good as Antithesis of Light, or Quietus, nor does it attempt to do anything that the Giant does. You've listened to the Giant, right?

It sounds more like standard funeral doom album than the Giant, which according to your genre definition, would make it more boring.

Mournful Congregation latest is still seriously in my player when it gets to funeral doom.

i need to order that album. ive been hearing great things. that album has been out almost a year. i should be ashamed. ordering it tomorrow.

In case you missed it snake, Alex's fine review of the album: http://www.metalreviews.com/reviews/detail.php3?id=7427

wow. that was a really really good review. i know exactly what im getting into with the album. excellent.

I have the Monad of creation if you wanted to trade for something, its a piece of shit.

You're truly a classic act.

On subjects like how great Mournful Congregation is how SOME people shouldn't express an opinion when all they have to say is that Funeral Doom is boring... which in fact is some of the most spiritual and uplifting music ever created in any genre in music. I mean consider Colosseum, their first and second albums are the definition of layered and the most depressed yet uplifting music ever! One can either realize the religious experience of a true and excellent Funeral Doom album or they just don't comprehend it at all. Simply put.

Silly line of reasoning or lack thereof. Some funeral doom is good and some isn't. That Elysian Blaze I didn't like? It's simply not that great. Doom metal needs to be crushing and honestly I find that more in sludge and drone influenced bands these days than in a lot of recent funeral doom acts.

As for the thread's album, it's good. I haven't given it enough listens to warrant an inciteful assessment, but I liked what I heard. The clean vocals were well utilized. Where Wretched of the Sea was an obvious Funeral doom album, I don't know if I would consider this one of that genre. Thoughts on that judgment?

Got interested because they're not growling as much anymore. Listened to the song "The Giant" on youtube and it's pretty cool.

Agreed on the second paragraph, but you are selling Elysian Blaze short. Of course it is overlong, I could cut 3 of the 8 tracks off without a second thought, and Blood of Ancients, Blood of Hatred doesn't actually start until 6:30. My initial view of the album was exaggerated by the highs on the album, but there are real highs on it. 16:30-28:00 of that track is the best single piece of music I've heard all year. It is both crushing doom metal and a black metal riff that plants in heads.

I'll give it some more listens...

*just relistened*

Well, I'm not sure any more. At some point I wonder how much of this is trickery caused by one's particular state of mind when he/she first heard the music. Well anyway, I think it is good, but it might seem really good because of the context of the album, and all the empty space that it takes up in places.

As I say again, an excellent Funeral Doom album elevates the mood of the listener into other-worldly territory. You having not experienced that really makes you unqualified to judge what I said as being a valid argument or an invalid one. Maybe you have no appreciation for a true funeral doom album which does NOT include this very review and album. Funeral doom deals with the very fabric of angst, anxiety and most primordial existential human emotions. The expression and the emotion involved in this album does NOT convey a mode of dismay and absolute despair. The point I was trying make was that Steve simply can't appreciate Funeral Doom. As a matter of fact it's a genre that simply does not relate to a lot of people. A religious experience can be vast and have awful different interpretations. An elevation of mood by a funeral doom metal album simply does that... For me!