Funeral Premiere “Materie” Video; Praesentialis in Aeternum Out Dec. 10
Some three decades on from their founding, Norway’s Funeral will release their first new album nine years, Praesentialis in Aeternum, on Dec. 10 through Season of Mist. And it arrives in form as though founding drummer Anders Eek and his surrounding cohort of vocalist Sindre Nedland, guitarists Erlend Nybø and Magnus Olav Tveiten, bassist Rune Gangrud and orchestral arranger André Aaslie — Ingvild “Sareeta” Anette Strønen Kaare (Ram-Zet, guest spots for Solefald, Borknagar, etc.) has also joined to play violin full-time, but isn’t on the record so far as I know — are working to make up for lost time. That is to say, for a collection of six tracks that willfully sloughs its way across 55 minutes, Praesentialis in Aeturnum is an intense listen. Its component songs, from opener “Ånd” onward, occur with headphone-ready depth and still maintain a raw impact of extreme metal.
The orchestral elements add a grandiose feel even as compares to 2012’s Oratorium, and in the aforementioned lead track as well as throughout “Erindring I – Hovmod” and its subsequent companion “Erindring II – Fall,” in “Materie” (premiering below) and elsewhere, they weave in and out to create a sense of there being movements within the individual songs. Nedland‘s vocals line up priorities accordingly, here resolving an apex in a call and response between low growling and choral harmonies, there meeting the quiet midsection of “Materie” with an almost sweet folkishness. Until it all explodes again, anyhow. Ka-boom.
The word you’re looking for is “dynamic,” and Funeral‘s awaited sixth full-length is easily that. “Erindring II – Fall” builds up with cinematic drama and turns grueling and gorgeous and back again before it finally slams to 
its finish. Sudden shifts in “Ånd” set an open context for the many turns between louder and quieter fare to come, but this isn’t necessarily anything new in terms of structure for Funeral, the central difference being how well the various sides of the band’s sound tie together and the production being large-sounding enough to contain the material itself. The arrival of the brass section after the five-minute mark in “Materie,” for example, or the choral layering of vocals that precede the final slams and growls of “Erindring II – Fall,” never mind the force behind those same slams and growls when they begin to land.
No matter how much Praesentialis in Aeternum is putting forward at any given moment — and it could be seemingly everything, nearly nothing, or anywhere in between ; see “dynamic,” above — the mix is able to accommodate without letting the audience get lost so much as swept along. As “Oppvåkning” marries classic keyboard-laced slow death — ‘funeral doom’ it’s called, not by happenstance — with these interlaced orchestralisms, the point is hammered just how extra they’re not; the chants backed by rumbling drums; the bombastic horns. These things aren’t flourish. They’re essential to the songwriting. “Oppvåkning” lets go gently into the 11:35 closer and longest track “Dvelen,” which is a lurching, surging, plodding triumph of emotionalist extreme heavy worthy of its place, controlled and precise but still resolute in its humanity.
If it needs to be said — and maybe it doesn’t, maybe it does — the 1990s were a long time ago, and Funeral have never been an album-every-year kind of band. Since their debut with 1995’s Tragedies and its 2001 foll0w-up, In Fields of Pestilent Grief, the shortest stretch between releases was with 2006’s From These Wounds and 2008’s As the Light Does the Shadow, and after that it was numerous lineup shifts and four years before Oratorium surfaced. Still, nine years is the longest Funeral have ever gone without putting out a record — nearly a third of their 30-year existence — and in addition to being their first for Season of Mist, the sheer fact of its realization seems all the more reason to celebrate the actual accomplishments these songs are making. Not only did Funeral make a new album after so long, but they made one that pushes a landmark style forward and speaks to its past while remaining engrossing in the present as well. They sound well at home doing so.
Enjoy the lyric video for “Materie” below, followed by preorder links and whatnot:
Funeral, “Materie” video premiere
Funeral doom pioneers FUNERAL’s official lyric video for the song “Materie!” The track is taken from their upcoming opus, ‘Praesentialis in Aeternum,’ which will be released on December 10, 2021 via Season of Mist.
► Order ‘Praesentialis in Aeternum’ here: https://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=funeral
► Pre-save & follow Funeral: https://orcd.co/funeral-praesentialis
► More info on Funeral: https://www.season-of-mist.com/bands/funeral/
Video created by Guilherme Henriques
https://www.guilhermevision.com/
Tracklist:
1. Ånd (8.14)
2. Materie (6.21)
3. Erindring I – Hovmod (8.16)
4. Erindring II – Fall (10.52)
5. Oppvåkning (9.54)
6. Dvelen (11.35)
Bonus:
1. Her Til Evig Tid (ånd: epilog) (7.21)
2. Vekst (erindring : prolog) (9.18)
3. Shades From These Wounds (6.09)
4. Samarithan (5.50)
Guest Musicians:
Lars Are Nedland (BORKNAGAR) – “Ånd”
Recording Studio:
Strand Studio and Toproom Studio
Producer/Sound Engineers:
Børge Finstad, Marius Strand
Mixing and mastering:
Børge Finstad @ Toproom Studios
Cover Art:
Christopher Rådlund
Funeral is:
Anders Eek : Drums
Rune Gandrud : Bass guitar
Sindre Nedland : Vocals
Erlend Nybø : Guitars
André Aaslie : Orchestration
Magnus Tveiten : Guitars
Sounds right in my gloomy wheelhouse! Also looking forward to new Swallow the Sun.