The Overlooked Masterpiece - "Under a Funeral Moon" Review (83%)
Black metal was always seen the culmination and realization of the hidden musical potential that began with Bathory, the true godfather of all extreme metal - and certainly not Venom - and followed in the forms of death metal, black metal, and eventually the blackened death metal of "The Epilogue to Sanity" and "Khranial" started. Death metal's structural riffing was strung along to central melodies - see Incantation's "Mortal Throne of Nazarene" and eventually "Diabolical Conquest", as the debut is closer to blackened death metal in spirit - in a purification of what had always made heavy metal the superior musical genre, the one with the most potential.
The best heavy, black, and death metal bands always followed this pattern somewhat but were almost always led astray in the end, or on subsequent works, either by unintentionally turning into self-parody by cloning themselves into irrelevance - "Panzerfaust" - or through delusions of rock stardom - "Now, Diabolical".
But this neoclassical realisation of a central melodic motif accompanying a dominant narrative atmosphere was first famously made by Varg Vikernes on Burzum's self-titled debut, and Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch from Thorns and Mayhem always credited Varg with the invention of the "black metal riff".
Snorre, Varg's "accomplice" in killing Euronymous according to the Norwegian criminal justice system, was very influential and is held in high regard by his Norwegian black metal peers - unlike Euronymous, for whom the appreciation ranges from mild tolerance to lethal annoyance (in the case of Varg) - for helping pioneer the Norwegian black metal style beyond the chromatic powerchord fest that dominated Bathory's first two releases and the speed metal of Sodom (a mild black metal influence in itself).
Which brings us to "Under a Funeral Moon", probably the most underappreciated of all four of the early Norwegian black metal masterpieces - alongside "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss", "Filosofem" and "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas". I had to write this review for "Under a Funeral Moon" as the other reviewers are polluted by Watain fans who call Darkthrone a "Pagan nazi" band, poser trolls who call it "glam metal", to sound funny I suppose, and other clownish low-lives.
"Under a Funeral Moon" is an underrated, underappreciated, a far too oft overlooked masterpiece of cold black metal fury.
The Overlooked Masterpiece
Much like "Locked Up in Hell" preceding "Miasma" or Phantom's "Withdrawal" preceding "Fallen Angel" and "Memento Mori", Darkthrone's "Under a Funeral Moon" before "Transilvanian Hunger" puts on display all of Fenriz, Nocturno Culto and particularly Zephyrous' faculties as a composers in a way that is both dark, threatening, and also surprisingly soothing and melancholic.
As another reviewer recently commented on the subject of Warkvlt "Bestial War Metal", some bands make the same album again and again until they are able to solidify their vision in a magnum opus.
Almost every black metal fan with say they respect "Under a Funeral Moon". But how many do so out of mechanical recognition for it being vaguely "influential" in the Norwegian black metal scene, and onward, without truly understanding that even if this album came out today, after all the others it is said to have influenced, it would still be as impressive and worthy of praise - but perhaps it would not be noticed or praised by the same people who today profess to "admire" it?
Contrary to common belief, "Under a Funeral Moon"'s worth is musical, not historical. This is not very different from people who "enjoy" Black Sabbath, Bathory or Obituary, or "respect" the influence Absurd and Neraines had on the then rising war metal movement, but fail to see the monument that works like "Master of Reality", "The Return", "Cause of Death", "Totenlieder" and "Yggdrasil" actually are.
In great part this error lies in associating or equating technical flourishes and prowess on the instruments and an apparent "complexity" of note selection - which album like "Under a Funeral Moon" and "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" are indeed, minus the "prowess" part, lacking - with a complexity of thought and excellence in composition - something not even the biggest of Necrophagist fan boys or Gorgoroth posers will try and claim Darkthrone and Burzum and strangers to. These two albums "Under a Funeral Moon" and "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" display an astounding clarity resulting, not from a mindless repetition of riffs - as modern black metal bands tend to revert to in an attempt to appear "true" - but from the exquisitely fused elements of extreme metal music - harmony, melody, tension, rhythmic work, atmosphere - in a way that may strike the unaware and simple-minded as "boring" and "monotonous", but whose genius reveals itself to the perseverant and clear-minded.
"Under a Funeral Moon" is not an "easy listening" album. Much like modern counterparts "Angel of Disease" or "Verminlust", the brilliance of the compositions on "Under a Funeral Moon" - minus the quasi-joke track "Unholy Black Metal" - will reveal itself naturally, as the listener's ear is able to process more and more details at once, thus "comprehend" the subtle nuances that make albums like these stand above the competition.
And that's what modern "black metal" lacks... everything is easily accessible, and severely lacking in content. No matter how many times you listen to "Inferanus Bestialis", you will never be more surprised, more stunned, more awed the tenth or twentieth time you listen to in, than the first. Just more annoyed at such pathetic poser music.
Confusing intelligibility with limitation, blandness, monotony or simplicity is the greatest sin one can commit against the black metal, because the greatest of works arising from the genre all share this intelligibility as a common trait, irrelevant of said work's technical proficiency or superficial complexity... While this is even more true of "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" and "Sanity", it bears bringing into question the undue and semi-constant musical irreverence bordering on disrespect - though partially compensated for by "historical recognition" - of which Darkthrone, Burzum and the early Norwegian black metal scene in general are the victims.
Under a Funeral Moon score: 83/100.
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