“Welcome to my funeral my family and my friends”: It was with this lyric that Dream Death arguably gave birth to death/doom on their cult classic debut, Journey into Mystery (1987). I say “arguably” because some would argue the seeds were planted even earlier when Tom G. Warrior plunked the legendary riff to “Procreation (Of the Wicked)”. Regardless of birth year, this marriage of plodding riffs and deathly subject matter is nothing new. Death/doom is a cruel, dark, unforgiving beast of a genre. It takes more than listening to Incantation and tuning down your guitar to obtain its bleak majesty. One must reach deep into their soul and purge their darkness through the power of the riff. It’s therapy…but much heavier and minus Dave Mustaine crying. New York’s Funeral Leech does exactly this on their debut album, Death Meditation.
Funeral Leech takes from the American death/doom playbook with heaviness at centerstage. There is some atmosphere in the form of distant chants on “Downpour”, “Statues”, and a couple other tracks. However, this serves as an undertone, not a dominant feature. The main event is the downright miserable riffs which sound like they’re being played by Bolt Thrower’s tormented cousin. These aren’t songs. These are dirges that largely follow the same sluggish tempo for the course of the album. This results in some redundancy throughout. On the other hand, by sticking to this dismal mood for so long, it’s quite the surprise when Funeral Leech switches things up.
More than halfway through Death Meditation, I found myself not headbanging, but slowly nodding my head in approval to each bone crunching riff. I asked myself, “How could this get any heavier?” Then I heard the riff halfway through “Morbid Transcendence”. This gives whole new meaning to the term “slowed to a crawl”. It’s my favorite song for this riff alone. Another unexpected surprise is the last couple minutes of “I Am the Cosmos”. The lengthiest track sees Funeral Leech fully embracing the early 90s death metal scene with the sole fast paced section on the album.
Death Meditation is not a life (or death) changing album, but Funeral Leech’s blackened hearts are in the right place. Their riffs tower over many who have feebly attempted this style in search for scene cred. If this is what they’ve accomplished on their debut, I can only imagine what the future has in store.
7 out of 10
Label: Carbonized Records
Genre: Death/Doom Metal
For fans of: Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, Spectral Voice