Marche Funèbre – "Roots of Grief" 2013	 September 3, 2013
ALBUM: Marche Funèbre – "Roots of Grief"
LABEL: Shiver Records
GENRE: Doom/Death Metal
RATING: 7.0 / 10
When I listened to the debut full-length by this band, it was not interesting at all. It was a vacuous approach with little to give and the clean vocals really ruined everything. This September, two years later, they come back with a second album and in my mind, it's their chance to prove that they evolved.
Marche Funèbre are trying to present the poetic side of doom metal with an elegant artwork and lyrics (i.e. the lyrics of "These Fevered Days" are from a poet named Emily Dickinson) and that has it's own artistic outcome. They have fused the elementary parts of doom metal with some growling vocals that can refer to death metal, creating a fine doom/death mixture, even though it does not go anywhere near the masters of the genre, Mourning Beloveth or November's Doom.
The production and the sound of the album are both clear enough to make the album audible, even though I did not expect any glitches there to be honest, especially when Frédéric Patte-Brasseur of Ataraxie and Funeralium helped a bit in creating the band's guitar sound. Musically, they have improved in terms of compositional skill and there are a lot of diversities in the songs that doomsters will really dig. Every instrument displays nice ideas, from the bass and the drums to the catchy guitar riffs and the various (clean or not) vocals, more crafted this time. The whole instrumentation generates a certain amount of atmosphere.
The reason I checked this band in the first place was because of their name, which must be taken from "Chopin's Marche Funèbre", then I realized that the ending riff of the last song "Crown of Hope", is actually taken from that piece. The album goes beyond one hour in length and there are tracks that last up to thirteen-fourteen minutes. I myself, prefer the doom/death parts over the clean vocal doom parts, since they are more intense.
I recommend this to any fan of doom metal, despite the fact that it didn't completely grow on me, as i'm not the biggest fan of the genre. "Roots of Grief" has several moments worth checking out and it's definitely better than their first album.
♠Standout tracks: Crown of Hope / Roots of Grief
Review by: VS
Tagged with: 2013 | Belgium | Doom Metal | Doom/Death Metal | Marche Funèbre | Roots of Grief | Shiver Records
Categorised as: Reviews | VS
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