FUNERAL RITES - NECROEATER (Painkiller Recs. - 2001): A rainy introduction leads us into the dark world of Funeral Rites. "Weird Tales" is the opening track of this band that has influences of black metal and I can hear some old school of thrash metal in there too. The songs are carefully constructed giving priority to the generation of atmospheres and dark feelings. There is an interesting use of spoken vocals in this first song too (along some funeral keyboards). One thing to point out is the excellent work of the guitarist. After this slow beginning they speed up to full blast metal in their second track called "The wintermoon". What I liked a lot from this track and from the whole album is the use of keyboards that sound really clean in contrast to the guitars. Fans of elaborated black metal will be delighted. It would be great if this band can record with a bigger budget to get a better sound (in fact I think this is the only low point of the recording but it can be fixed easily). Contact: painkiller@infonie.be
