CoC : Fear of Eternity - Funeral Mass : Review

Fear of Eternity - _Funeral Mass_
(Moribund, 2007)
by: Jeremy Ulrey (1 out of 10)

Black metal is easily the most inconsistent of all musical genres -- the sole possible exception being noise/ambient -- and releases like _Funeral Mass_ are shining proof. A completely generic atmospheric black metal effort with catalog keyboard progressions, vocals that come across as constipated more so than threatening, and monotonous, 4/4 drum machine beats; there is really just no reason for recycled pap like this to exist. Granted, _Funeral Mass_ is a demo, presumably re-released due to popular demand after the raging success of the subsequent Fear of Eternity albums -- but yeah, I'm being sarcastic: I acquired all three of those "real" efforts for comparison purposes, and trust me, they're all pretty much equally yawn-inducing. As lazy as I feel settling for a one paragraph review, I can't imagine that Andrea Tilenni, the sole member of Fear of Eternity, put much more effort into composing the damn thing, so fuck it. And while we're at it, down with all black metal one man bands. Sure, there are a handful of really good ones out there, but it'd be worth the loss to get rid of the legions of clueless wannabes and cash grab con artists. A 1 out of 10 just for putting in the man hours, but at this end of the scale, you can afford a little grade point leniency.

(article published 3/10/2007)