Entry 1432 - Viridescent Funeral - Demo I/Demo II

Style: black metal, dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Obscure mysteries, searching, moments of clarity 

Thoughts: Obscure melodies and production cloud the delivery of the black metal contained within the grooves of this record. How many times have I thought something like that? More times than I can count, especially in the context of black metal. 

On the surface Viridescent Funeral's demo's offer absolutely nothing new. They are simple, the riffs repeat for the nearly 20 minutes on each side. There are brief moments where the music gives way to classic dungeon synth, and the production binds it all together in a hazy fog that simply does the listener no favors in terms of clarity.

It's all been done before, and as with all things there is nothing new under the sun. That said, there is something compelling about these two albums. The riffs, while they do repeat, have a hypnotic quality to them. The obscurity of the production lends to the albums atmosphere in a way that almost no other genre outside of black metal can produce. The synths add to this atmosphere to create a depth in the obscurity that compels me to keep digging, keep searching through the depths of the music to find more.

There are moments in both of the demo songs that stand out purely from their own merit as well. Demo one builds over the course of its twenty minutes and ends up with some riffs that get stuck in my head for hours on end they are so well written. All of the buildup and wonder created throughout the first moments of the song are paid out to the listener ten fold with that ending riff, my god it kicks ass.

The second demo is not as strong as the first, but still has some killer moments in it. Instead of building up over most of the song, Demo II starts off with its best riff and a blast beat. It's almost the inverse of Demo I. As with the first demo, it has an excellent atmosphere and strong songwriting that is amplified by the production. 

Neither demo offers anything new to those searching for it, but those looking for some solid raw black metal could do far worse than these two demos. I for one find myself coming back to these songs multiple spins each time this album hits the turntable. The status of the band is unknown as of this writing, and as such I don't know if we'll get anything more from them. As it stands though, these two demos are some of the better music I've heard in the raw black metal realm in the past few years.