TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Waiting for Arrival
2.  Sinner’s Eve
3.  Blood on White
4.  Shiver
5.  Congenital Defeat
6.  Walls that Held Screams
7.  Spirits Bewail
8.  Slumber End
9.  Redeemed from Time
10.  Grip of Insanity

DEMO ‘90
11.  Expunging Mortalities
12.  Grip of Insanity
13.  Imminent Salvage

Cranial Torment (DEMO ‘89)
14.  Cranial Torment
15.  Necropolis Discomposure
16.  Brainspoon
17.  Carbonized
18.  Leprophiliac

Total playing time:  1:15:42

Release Date: October 20, 2011
Label: Xtreem Music

Funebre - Children of the Scorn

Reviewer: Chris

October 21, 2011

Finnish death metal has always been a sort of forgotten realm; I suppose it has to do with the fact that when you imagine an underground movement from Finland you really have to dig deep to find a few old bands worth mentioning aside from Abhorrence or Convulse. Sadly, Finland is known primarily for its overhyped and overvalued symphonic power metal that seems to breed as fast as two rabbits hopped up on meth. To find a worthy contender from the past Xtreem is reissuing Funebre’s lone full-length Children of the Scorn in an attempt to set the misguided record straight.

What immediately resonates with me some 20-years after I heard this album in passing is how the style is far removed from the ‘hot’ and polished Floridian sound and not as crunching and down-tempo as the Swedish counterparts. The middle road is found here and meshes a bit of both worlds to a satisfactory level of enjoyment. The guttural vocals are there, as is the brutal down tuning that renders a novice susceptible to the belligerent charms of death metal quite swimmingly, but there’s a borderline doom feel to it all as well. From some of the more apocalyptic sounds of “Blood on White” you gain a sense of trust until the slow, descending movements scale down the spine like a recluse spider on the silken thread. I’m not entirely sure this album is ‘ugly’ in the most abstract sense of the word, but it has levels of discomfort that are perfectly suited for the fan of death metal that has yet to experience Funebre. I know I’m back on board after losing touch of the band some three decades ago.

This album can be all-consuming in its belabored brilliance, setting tones of despair and hyperactivity in each song; the band manages to do this more than once and with a level of near-perfect subtly. While there is a small correlation with the Swedish sound here, the overall setting is not as dark and murky as, say, Grave, and it’s certainly not as buffed as Obituary or even Deicide. What is presented here in Children of the Scorn is both a somber and strangely uplifting foray into the otherwise dense fog that is death metal music. There is much of the same in terms of familiar riffs and some vocal melodies, but the aforementioned tempo changes throughout create a fine aura of sound that is easily memorable and highly interesting. This is an album much like the American death metal act Gutted that produced one of the better, albeit wholly ignored death metal albums in 1994’s Bleed for Us to Live that you can find easy to repeat and study at greater length. I especially like the short instrumental in “Spirits Bewail” that was absolutely perfect in that it ended with you wanting a bit more, but not a second too long to wear out a welcome. Some of the standouts are “Slumber End”, “Walls that Held Screams” and “Blood on White”, but what you also get on this reissue are the two demos from ’89 and ’90 that really showcase the band’s uprising. Despite the arduous quality there’s a punishing feel to it that makes that bass heavy sound all the more viable. Some of the demos certainly retain that Swedish sound to a “T”, but I’m glad that they altered the brashness just a hair to set it apart from all other death metal albums of the period. Granted it’s far from original or perfect, but it’s one that you can pick out certain elements and consider how different they are and how they work for the song(s). In this case the demos are both engaging and worthy of your additional time.

Finland’s lost era of death metal is creeping back into the psyches of a new generation as well as reminding us oldsters of its presence. We should all take a few glances back from time to time and realize what we had, lost and can find again.