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Dark Funeral: Angelus exuro pro eternus

12/11/09 || Lord K Philipson

Understand this, “Diabolis interium” is one of the best albums I have ever heard. Dark Funeral instantly became a personal fave band with that one. Then we waited… and waited… and fucken waited… We waited 4 fucken years for the follow-up to the just-mentioned masterpiece. “Attera totus sanctus” saw the light of day in 2005 and was treated like this by me. From that review:

“All we can hope for now is that it won’t take another 4 years until we get another piece of plastic from these satanic servants. It will be interesting to see what they are going to do after this piece of absolute mayhem.”

Guess what? Yep, it took another 4 fucken years before we got a new album, this time neatly entitled “Angelus exuro pro eternus”. So, what happened between these albums? Tons of tours, for one… And ofcourse; drummer Matte Modin obviously had it with Dark Funeral and walked away, not on good terms it seemed judging from the band statement. Matte has not revealed his side of the story which further cements the fact that he didn’t exactly handle the situation nicely. Either way, Modin fucks off and nice-guy Nils “Dominator” Fjällström comes in. You know this guy from fantastic death metal act Aeon and 4 million other bands. The dude is acknowledged as one of the best (and sadly – most underrated) drummers in death metal, and rightfully so. He can’t set up a good drumsound if his cock depended on it, but fuck man – can the guy play with the best of them… I was curious as for how he would adjust to playing black metal instead of death metal, especially in a band like Dark Funeral – known for their intense insanity and furious speed. Replacing Matte Modin would not be easy, that’s for sure. Eventually I saw some live clips with Nils doing the drums and wasn’t impressed in the least. Nils’ style somehow didn’t really fit to me… I was sure that given time he would adjust himself though. There is a distinct difference between playing death metal and black metal, that is obvious.

The first taste we got from this new Dark Funeral album was in the shape of the “My funeral” video. And what a fucken tune. That one raised the expectations even more for what was to come, to put it mildly. It was fantastic to hear that Caligula’s vocals was back to form (something they certainly were not on “Attera”) and prolly better than ever. That guy sure got himself the best black metal vocal chords in the business when he’s in his prime, and on “Angelus exuro pro eternus” he is just that. Without a doubt, Caligula’s pulled off his best performance of his career. Welcome back, my friend.

So, expectations were sky-rocketing and since Jarne of Regain Records and I speak over the Internet every now and then he sure was informed I was looking forward to a promo copy of this album for coverage on GD. And some time ago I got it.

And here we are…

The new artwork is kinda fantastic though it reminds me of something so much it’s not even funny. I have been thinking about what picture it is I have in mind, but can’t come up with it… The day I do I will let you know. But let’s move on to the album. First thing that dawned on me was the drumsound… The Curse Of Nils’ Toms is still present, which is a fucken shame. The kicks (though a bit too loud in the mix for my liking), cymbals and snare sound all fine, but those toms really irritate me. Pretty much the same situation as with everything else Nils plays on. It’s tolerable though, but I would have preferred a sound like what we got on “Diabolis” or “Attera”. A sound less lifeless, if you will, than what is heard on “Angelus”. I’m still not convinced that Nils is the right guy to fill Matte’s shoes, but he sure pulls off some impressive shit here and there, just as expected. I’m just not blown away.

This leads us to the rest of the disc…

Going back to Abyss Studios yet again is a move I wouldn’t have made had I been running the band. Dug Out gave “Attera” a fantastic production, perfect for Dark Funeral’s black metal. The sound on “Angelus” is ofcourse mighty fine, that’s not the problem, I just think Dug Out’s studio-wizardry works better for DF. It’s not as sterile and it’s packing a much better punch, a bigger “bottom”, if you get my drift. Also, the drumsound on “Attera” kills the one heard on “Angelus”. Now when the production is briefly dissected, let’s move on to the actual music, shall we?

The first few times I listened to this album – the fast material actually did very fucken little for me. I didn’t “feel” it. It just didn’t fucken speak to me as Dark Funeral usually do. It didn’t grab me by the ballsack, and it pissed me off big time. We are talking about one of my absolute fave bands – they know how to fucken crush my balls with their trademark audible battery. I suspected this one would need a serious amount of spins before revealing itself in all its eventual blasphemous glory.

So I have given it that serious amount of spins now…

And it’s obvious that “Angelus exuro pro eternus” is not better than the last 2 albums, but it’s absolutely a good fucken disc – given time it is prolly even great, but we are not there just yet. It’s not as direct as its 2 predecessors but it holds all the mentioned trademark stuff that is Dark Funeral to the core. It’s not as catchy as past material, no, this holds a darker aura to it (as first introduced on “Attera”) and it seems like catchiness had to fuck off a bit (mainly in the faster tunes) to achieve that atmosphere.

One thing is certain; after “Diabolis”, which is a fucken melodic, catchy and stunning piece of vicious black metal history, Dark Funeral became more aggressive. They became… lemme see here… more relentless might be the word I’m looking for. Uncompromising. I don’t appreciate the move as much as I would like to. At least not yet, as mentioned. Time will tell if I ever will.

Surprisingly enough it’s the slow songs that are the best ones here. “My funeral” is, as mentioned, excellent. “In my dreams”, despite its cheesy title, is another really atmospheric and moody tune with some absolutely tear-jerking guitars in it. Lovely. Usually Dark Funeral throw in one slow song on their albums but here we are treated with a bunch of them, making the album more varied than what we are used to. I like that.

Fear not, we get fast songs as well, fuck you think? “Declaration of hate” is possibly the best one. A tune that features some really fantastic ride-work by Nils towards the end of it along with fantastic riffs, ridiculously fast doublebass and memorable sections during its 5 minutes of absolute mayhem. This is how DF are supposed to sound when they put on the blast costumes. Excellent song and a definite highlight on this recording. But hear this; there is no “The arrival of Satan’s empire” or “King Antichrist” here in terms of groove and catchiness. So do not expect that. As mentioned, you’ll probably find the slower songs the highlights on “Angelus exuro pro eternus”.

Dark Funeral couldn’t shit out a bad record if their lives depended on it, and they are a truly unique-sounding band and so forth… I have a feeling this album will turn out to be a grower coz after a bunch of listens I appreciate it a hella lot more than I did initially. By any other band’s standards, this album would have been a 9. By Dark Funeral’s standards, this is an 8. That says pretty much about the insane quality these guys possess.

But fact remains: “Angelus exuro pro eternus” is not everything that I hoped for (if you are the band responsible for “Diabolis interium” you’ll simply have to live with expectations being out of this world). Still, “Angelus exuro pro eternus” will further acknowledge Dark Funeral as one of the best black metal bands in the world.

They are definitely still number 1 for me.

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Regain Records
Website: www.darkfuneral.se
Band
Emperor Magus Caligula: vocals
Lord Ahriman: guitars
Chaq Mol: guitars
B-Force: bass
Dominator: drums

Tracklist
01. The end of human race
02. The birth of the vampiir
03. Stigmata
04. My funeral
05. Angelus exuro pro eternus
06. Demons of five
07. Declaration of hate
08. In my dreams
09. My latex queen

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