Unholy crap, this stuff is pretty sick! And I like it! Who's the weirdo responsible for this madness? No one else but Aroich, better known as Mortuus, Marduk's front man. Swedish Black Metal is not really my first choice regarding this genre of metal, though Funeral Mist is definitely scoring some points. Pretty un-catholic cover art too! Apparently, the beast does not manifest itself on every full moon, and when it does, even the purists are raising all hails.
Funeral Mist (nice name by the way) is quite unique and original in its approach to the Black Metal arts. Their take does not lean towards the avant-gardist side, but rather on the sick, twisted as well as melodic side, mind you. Not confined to the vicious, fast paced/double basses rhythms, those beasts are resorting, more than once, to moderate time signatures with heavily crushing guitar tones, wicked vocals and some ambiences too. Track like "Jesus Saves" is not only deliciously blasphemous, but the cool distorted arpeggios of the intro bring the listener into a Doom Black Metal infernal journey. There are even some "choirs" in that same song, and one would be interested to know that those chanted passages are to be heard in a few occasions. "Blessed Curse" is the longest composition on Maranatha, almost clocking in at 12 minutes. That moderate and dramatically distorted number keeps mesmerized from beginning to end. Arioch's vocals are excellent and varied, while adding a certain theatrically twisted edge to the music.
Maranatha is a nicely wicked Black Metal opus, well worth investigating.
Track listing:
1 - Sword of Faith
2 - White Stone
3 - Jesus Saves!
4 - A New Light
5 - Blessed Curse
6 - Living Temples
7 - Anathema Maranatha
8 - Anti-Flesh Nimbus
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