Evoken/Beneath the Frozen Soil reviewed

This review was written a couple of years ago, but never published. I've done some re-working and revision, and it's now a fun little chunk of my spleen, vented into hypertext. Enjoy at your peril.
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Funeral doom is, for those confused by the nomenclature, a metal sub-genre of painfully slow and ominous music. Bands lease their growls from doom death, but the music is slowed to even greater morbidity. The template is insular, dense, and minimalist. A funeral doom band plays with a bitter lethargy that could make your grandmother impatient while waiting in line at the bank.

With a market as small and cultish such as seen in doom metal, funeral doom bands occupy a territory Spinal Tap’s Ron Smallwood might refer to as “more select.” If such remote corners of music evidence a hierarchy, Evoken is near the top of the heap. Since their founding in 1994, the band has grown a tiny cult of devotees, willing to follow their tortured minor chords all the way into the abyss.

Today’s offering is a split EP, divided between Evoken and Beneath the Frozen Soil (a relatively new band with only one EP to their credit). The Evoken half contains extra tracks from their A Caress of the Void sessions. The songs are nothing spectacularly original, but not a regurgitation of their past glories either. Perhaps these are deviations that didn’t entirely belong on Caress, but they are by no means weak. There is a feeling of natural progression and build, where riffs collapse in slow motion, crushing the synth strains and organ melodies. This is music for drinking alone, brooding about the futility of life, and cheering on the collapse of civilization.

Beneath the Frozen Soil are both less despondent and lesser in stature. Their black metal vocals promise an amusing addition to conventional doom-death formulas, but the actual riffs, compositions, and guitar tone are poorly chosen. The two part suite “Monotone Black” wastes over 12 minutes on aimless repetition, being neither infectious, nor thought-provoking, nor adventurous. The elements stolen from bands like Swallow the Sun and Katatonia are uncomfortably respectful reproductions, showing no understanding of why those bands tick or how to reshape an influence into an original identity or theme. These chaps possess prowess, but lack a certain je ne sais quoi that hardens dedication into a diamond. Evoken has gathered enough diamonds for a necklace, Beneath the Frozen Soil offer a cubic zirconia earring.