• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Having read a number of reviews of "Skullfucking Armageddon" a few years ago, I bought "Funeralight" expecting some "beyond extreme" Black Metal. This EP more or less delivers that, although I found it pretty tame overall. While this is essentially a good Black Metal release, the dumb as hell use of keyboards casts a shadow of crappiness over it. Some bands know how to blend keyboards so that they make the music sound good, but Impiety should have steered clear of that. The keyboards add nothing here, but take a lot away. Not only are they way too audible, but they're downright crappy. Did they get a 5 year old to do play them or what? I could go on, but let's just say that they sound like crap, don't fit the music and end up ruining the listening experience of an otherwise good CD. Based on the interviews I read a few years ago, I wouldn't have expected this kind of junk from this band.

When the music is not polluted by that garbage, there's some good stuff in here - mid to fast (and occasionally very fast) paced BM not unlike bands like Abigor and Marduk, to name a few, and with some death metal undertones. The vocals are quite fitting as well, very harsh and hate-filled (except for the "choir"-style back vocals that pop up from time to time and suck as much as the keyboards.) Unfortunately the sound is somewhat muffled and makes it difficult to fully appreciate the work of the individual instruments, although that doesn't hurt the material as much as the aforementioned crappy keyboards.

On an aesthetic note, the cover art is great, although what is a nice looking digipak also lacks even a small booklet, an increasingly common trend. Recommended only for the completists.