Kilte/Funeral Mourning

Emission Through Self Infliction Split

Goatwarex 2007

Two similar and equally depressive bands from opposite ends of the globe tear away all hope, strip away any glimmer of joy from the listener with their brands of doom suffocating black metal.  Overcast skies and grey fog swallowed landscapes are images painted so drearily by Belgium's Kilte.  Their two tracks, Deaden Myself Parts I and II are sort of a Burzum inspired wall of fuzz but with some interesting Cure overtones that give the the songs a layer of emotional despondency that they might otherwise lack.  The subtle Cure influences are most notable in the clean guitars at the end of Dead Myself Part II which for some reason remind me of the way a church bell echoes in the distance across a sleepy European village.  Funeral Mourning having amazed me on their debut album of Thergothon influenced funeral doom death have seemingly changed tact and morphed into a much more black metal oriented beast.  Funeral Mourning is necessarily more dark and creepy because of this metamorphosis.  With Life Comes Death ebbs and flows at a tectonically slow pace with putrid eerie riffs that revel in their mist shrouded mystery.  Much the same occurs on This Wretched Existence but an even more somber tone is invoked with the solitary clean guitar at the end of the song.  Desolate's vocals crackle like an old witch whereas Kilte's vocalist S. has a raspy shriek that gives his voice a feeling of depth and distance.  He is lost somewhere in the unseen and murky forest.  One of the things that really impresses me about these two projects is they refuse to fall into the trap so many of their peers have done and that is to utilize a lot of the riffing style made popular by Katatonia.  These two bands are talented enough and true enough to their instincts and emotions to achieve the appropriate moods without such shortcuts.  Though these two projects are separated by geographical distance I am hard pressed to think of any other bands that more thematically matched.  A pair of melancholic soul mates if you will.  Despair and misanthropy prevail within these confines inducing suicide without warmth.  Shiver and die!