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Review: The Ethereal - From Funeral Skies
The Ethereal
www.nulll-void.com/svc
From Funeral Skies

Label: Marche Funebre Productions
Year released: 2005
Originally released in: 2002
Duration: 57:52
Tracks: 4
Genre: Funeral Doom

Rating:
3.75/5


Review online: March 12, 2008
Reviewed by: Pagan Shadow
Readers' Rating
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Rated 4/5 (80%) (4 Votes)
Review

Founded in 2002 by Stijn Van Cauter, The Ethereal released their debut, From Funeral Skies later on that same year. Signed by Rage of Achilles, an agreement was made also to re-release this album. For the occasion it was re-recorded, but due to the label stopping its operations, the album was never re-released. Fortunately, Marche Funebre Productions got interested and late 2005 saw the new version of From Funeral Skies.

As it was the case with his other solo project, Beyond Black Void, Stijn is the sole soul behind this Funeral Doom "band". We have here long pieces of music, lasting from 10 to 17 minutes, for nearly an hour of slow-paced funeral hymns. Stijn's vocals are more upfront this time but remains very guttural and haunted too. I'd like to think From Funeral Skies as being a more melodic sort of Funeral Doom than what I've come across so far. True that the pace is either slow or very slow, the guitars distorted and the drums pounding, Stijn brought a touch of originality into his compositions. Of course keyboards have been used in the past, but here he also uses pleasant piano parts on many occasions. Sometimes, we even have calmer/melodic moments where the piano is playing a major role, like on the closing song and title track.

Although the compositions could be considered as being long lasting and repetitive, these melodic moments make the ride easier to go through since Funeral Doom is not easily accessible.

More about The Ethereal...
Review: From Funeral Skies (reviewed by Lars Christiansen)
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