Wednesday, May 22, 2013

MELODIC MELANCHOLIA: THE FUNERAL AND THE TWILIGHT

There's something wonderfully surreal and creepy swirling around The Funeral and the Twilight. Macabre, beards, and some of the best damn vibrato-goth vocals I've heard. Something lurks beneath the music. It digs its claws into you and doesn't let go, peeling away one layer at a time.  

It's confounding. Even rogue critic, Drew Ailes, is at a loss, when it comes to describing TFATT's new album Lust: "decided that IT'S FUCKED. seriously, i don’t understand it. sounds like a mariachi band playing NAPALM DEATH songs in a castle. totally baffling, engrossing music. i think i like it." 

There's the obvious mangled-Morrissey and jumbled-Joy Division comparisons. It's not like they hide it. The lyrics, though, push TFATT beyond the easy comparisons into something that is decidedly more devilish and delicious. Seriously, gems like "i drank your river, i drank it gone and missed, i piss out your river, i piss you out as piss. i put you on the table, i open you up" or "I watched my daughter die. We buried her up to her chest. I watched the first stone cast. Until the very last" course through every song. The music is equally unstable: angst-ridden melodies clamor against any expectation you may have on how all the pieces fit together.

The rawness of the live sets is just as impressive. Straight-up emotional intensity that pierces and lacerates the audience. It was awesome to watch the room steadily fill when they took the stage last year. TFATT has been one of the brightest of many bright spots in the past few years, and we're stoked that they're able to bring back their evolving brand of goth-infused satanic death doom jazz. 


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