Insincere Metalcore - "Angelus Exuro pro Eternus" Review (0%)
Dark Funeral is yet another below-average, trendy black metal band from the useless shores of Sweden. For the most part, Swedish black metal is completely worthless - Marduk and Sacramentum being the exceptions - and these guys do nothing but add more truth to that statement.
Rather than jumping on the nu metal bandwagon, like so many of their countrymen from Watain to later Dissection, this band has gone for the pseudo-occult crowd that lurks deep within the underground. Everything about them reeks of posturing and trying too hard to impress people with how many occult satanic books they've read and referenced in the lyrics.
Like so many similar bands, these days, Dark Funeral is all image and no substance.
Released in 2009, Angelus Exuro pro Eternus is certainly one of the most boring releases that many of you will ever attempt sitting through. The only minor entertainment may come from counting the number of imitation Demonecromancy riffs, or simply laughing at the pathetic attempts at creating an occult atmosphere to match the image that the band so strongly tries to cultivate.
Right away, you'll notice that Dark Funeral's vocals are horrid. The vocalist relies way too much on a At the Gates / Necrophobic / Dark Tranquility approach that has no place in this sort of music. It seems that, in one way or another, the Swedes cannot let go of their 'melodeath' - i.e. metalcore - roots, in a precedent set by Dissection long before.
The songwriting is incredibly poor and under-developed. The guitar melodies are painfully boring and the riffs go beyond generic.
Worst of all, they seem to go nowhere. There is this constant feeling as if the riffs are about to build up to something, but nothing ever happens as Dark Funeral is content with making noise for the sake of making noise, like a toddler discovering a piano except in this case, in addition to the music the toddler is also screeching 'Hail Satan' in its most random imitation of Dani Filth.
Apparently, even the drummer got bored with the lame riffs as, whether the pace is fast or slow, he is way too overactive in trying to compensate for the lack of interesting ideas the band puts forth.
Dark Funeral was seemingly too busy trying to fit in all of the trendy elements of modern 'cult' black metal into their image that they forgot that which mattered most, which is sincerity.
Angelus Exuro pro Eternus does not possess one ounce of it.
Insincere Metalcore
Dark Funeral got the mixture of high and low vocals and the occasional funeral doom bits tossed in, with a very choreographed and inorganic feel to it all. Angelus Exuro pro Eternus isn't the sound of black metal, it's the sound of a band trying way too hard, and coming up with absolutely nothing but random riffs that have about as little meaning as the faux-satanic lyrics.
As for the production, the overall sound that plagues Dark Funeral's album is one of warm boredom and muddy incoherence. This is not what you want in a black metal release.
There is not one moment where Dark Funeral's music feels cold or dark, whatsoever. The mix is rather irritating to listen to, with the fake sounding percussion seeming to surround you and blocking out the riffs. This would be fairly detrimental to the album, if not for the fact that the riffs themselves are pointless.
The vocals suck. With such a weak vocalist, Dark Funeral should have tried some sort of studio trickery to make him sound somewhat better, but they opted instead to let him rot in a lame attempt at sounding more obscure and underground. Unfortunately, this all reeks of modernity, specifically of modern metal, from the sound to the actual songwriting.
The band claims they released their first album in 1994, yet Angelus Exuro pro Eternus gives off the impression that they had formed not long before recording this, after having listened to too many Demonecromancy and Vermin albums.
This album does not sound like the work of musicians with any real old school black metal roots. Dark Funeral's music sounds insecure and insincere, in addition to being basically distorted and reverb processed metalcore with harsh 'Dani Filth' vocals.
Don't fall for the hype. If you want real black metal, don't go anywhere near Dark Funeral.
Angelus Exuro pro Eternus score: 0/100.
Support the Underground
