Not just a one-dimensional band doling out sick, monotonous tunes to the desolate, Funeralium brilliantly create emotive moments within the prevalent madness, like a schizophrenic patient switching to his fanciful happy thoughts to escape from the insufferable reality of his present. Delve into the anguished, twisted mind of Funeralium; at worst, you will feel immensely grateful for your sane life.

The songs progress at an agonisingly slow pace, making it all too easy for minds to wonder and aspects overlooked. Although the doomy guitar riffs are not drawn out to the extremes of, say, Beyond Black Void, they are imbued with such a lack of urgency that one could potentially lose interest before the completion of the first riff! The drums are suitably minimalist, to the extent that anyone with a year's training could easily perform the drum patterns -- but then this "extreme doom" is not designed for or intended to be an exhibition of percussive virtuosity. As with the drone and funeral subgenres of doom, this will only appeal to those who will have a taste for stripped down doom proceeding at glacial speed. You will like it, or you will not. There is no middle ground.

Now mind you, this album isn�t as slow as say, a Khanate album, but it is pretty slow and they manage to maintain an actual song structure. Comparing Funeralium to bands from the past isn�t all that hard. The obvious choice is Hellhammer's Apocalyptic Raids. The influence that Tom Warrior�s screams had on this recording is undeniable. After that, bands like Winter and Sorrow come to mind. There are some death metal moments in these tracks, and I think that is what keeps the album from turning into a space-laden post Lull album. The real question is, how does a band react when they finish their albums? How does one celebrate such pure expression of despair?