Album Review: Funeral Hearse – In Devotion of … (Spy Satellite Records)

A one man extreme metal band from Singapore, Funeral Hearse, plays a diverse mix of crust punk infused black metal with themes ranging from religion, politics, nuclear annihilation and society.

In Devotion of … sees the band explore the misinterpreted left-hand path Hindu sect the Aghori Sadhu, who practise bouts of cannibalism, residing in cremation ground and many more.

In Devotion of … was released on 1st March 2019 via Spy Satellite Records.

There’s a lot of fire and brimstone on this record. It’s weighted to the extreme side of metal, a blackened curse of a listen. The blackness rises like bile in the throat, spewing its steaming evil sound in every direction.

It’s an impressive result for a one-man project having so many different elements combining to create a set of tracks that seem tasked with taking the listener down to the darkest depths possible. Each track comes with a bucket full of force and all anyone can do is curl up in a ball and hope for the best.

Burning Ambers from the Funeral Pyre is a smart and tasteful rhythm heavy track while In Worship of the Divine positions itself on the more intensely black side of the scale. Both are great tracks with enough elements to differentiate themselves from the consistent hammer blows of metal.

It’s back to basics for a while within the hellish landscape of Under the Eclipse of A Pale Moon. However where it changes things is with a short moody drop into subtle guitar playing. It’s not an enlightening moment or anything but it serves its purpose of building things back up for a frantic finale.

Moments of dark melody are rare here, so stand out even more when they do crop up. The intro of the savage Cleansing A Damned Soul is one such moment while a segment in Alternate State of Consciousness is another. Always short and always there to enhance the barbarity of what comes next. It works as both those and the album as a whole can be considering a blistering extreme metal effort.

Funeral Hearse – In Devotion of… Full Track Listing:

1. Into the Eye of the Serpent
2. Burning Ambers from the Funeral Pyre
3. In Worship of the Divine
4. Under the Eclipse of A Pale Moon
5. Cleansing a Damned Soul
6. Alternate State of Consciousness

The album can be picked up now over on Bandcamp.