History
An offshoot of death-doom, the genre was mostly inspired by the work of Autopsy, Winter, Cathedral and early Paradise Lost. Funeral doom truly came into being in the mid-1990s. [2] [3] [4] [5] The genre was birthed out of Finland; [6] [7] [8] Thergothon and Skepticism are commonly cited as the earliest two bands in the style, as well as Unholy. [2] [6] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Outside Scandinavia, the lines between death-doom and funeral doom pioneers were less clear cut. diSEMBOWELMENT, from Australia, Birmingham-based Esoteric, and American act Evoken are examples. [2] [3] [15] [16] [17] [18]
With the turn of the millennium came releases of newer bands, such as Shape of Despair, Mournful Congregation, the "Nautik Doom" group Ahab and one-man-projects Nortt and Doom:VS. [9] [19] [20] Funeral doom scenes cropped up over the world, such as the one in Russia. [21] The Solitude Productions label, for example, became a major force in shaping its future. [22] Like no metal subgenre before it, the internet boom greatly helped funeral doom reach new fans. [9] By the 2010s, funeral doom reached into metal's mainstream. [23]
Another sign of funeral doom's increasing status was Peaceville's move to buy the rights of Avantgarde Music's back catalogue. [24] Responsible for launching the careers of Autopsy, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, Peaceville was the major player in shaping what became known as death-doom. [25] This now meant that Peaceville had a significant stake in funeral doom's history: it owned all of Thergothon's and Unholy's discography, along with two Evoken albums. [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32]
Although it has a substantial following, funeral doom has also its share of criticism. Chronicles of Chaos co-editor Pedro Azevedo argued that, to the average listener, funeral doom might sound "boring and repetitive". [33] Ciarán Tracey, in an article for Terrorizer , acknowledged that the increasing popularity of funeral doom also meant that it now had its "share of hangers-on and can act as a repository for pseudo-literary teen poetry and artless abstraction, so a certain critical scrutiny has become necessary." [9]
Etymology
Funeral doom's name has two distinct genealogies. One source claimed it was a namesake of Norway's death-doom outfit Funeral. [37] It might have come, too, from Skepticism's pipe organ-like keyboard timbre, which reminded listeners of funeral music. [38] Keyboardist Eero Pöyry said that "I position myself as a church organ player in a metal band". [39] Furthermore, Pöyry explained that, at the time,
Many bands were either using [keyboards] as background, almost like an effect, and others were using it like a second solo guitar, using keyboard solos and all that. Neither of those felt like ours. I kind of thought what a keyboard player in a metal band like this should be like. It should be like the organist in a church. In that lineup, the organ became much like what the second guitar would have been. The way to position it in the sound was church organ-like. Thinking through all the things you should do and not do… I started taking it in the organist direction instead of soloist direction [...]. It's pretty much a church organ setup in a metal band as well. [39]
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