Day: December 10, 2013

Depressive black metal is probably one of the subgenres that, due to its peculiar characteristics, divides listeners the most. In fact, if we exclude some of the best-known names on the Scandinavian scene who, over the years and with the experience gained, have increasingly cleaned up the sound, often with the result of losing even a good part of their charm, those who try their hand at dsbm are almost always single musicians who give life to their project by putting into it all their passion and expressive urgency, often leaving out, completely or almost completely, aspects that are not exactly marginal such as instrumental technique and recording quality. Thus, with increasing frequency, we come across products whose enjoyment is entirely dependent on the ability of the individual listener to move beyond formal aspects to focus exclusively on the content, and it is precisely this that is the discriminating factor capable of making the genre appreciated or not. This debut demo by the Brazilian one man band Funesto is rather emblematic of what has just been said: a voice that seems to come out of a manhole covers screeches lyrics, probably in Portuguese judging by the song titles, leaning on the usual buzzing guitars supported by a rhythmic base where the drums, commendably human rather than a cold drum machine, nevertheless sound like someone fiercely beating a drum of detergent. A work to fail, then? Far from it, and it is precisely here that that ability to overcome certain barriers mentioned earlier is triggered: Meu Último Dia on a compositional level is instead a good debut, capable of offering twenty minutes of dsbm with desperate traits, as tacky as you want in certain moments (the gunshot that ends the protagonist’s suffering in Sobre Meu Sangue is all too obvious), but capable of engaging thanks to the distinct melodic sensibility of Sergio França (aka Infernal). If the first two tracks, the title track and the just-mentioned Sobre Meu Sangue, express the more raw and nihilistic side of the work, Caminho Funesto opens up to more airy atmospheres letting the guitar work let that underlying melancholy flow that is also maintained in the concluding Lembranças De Um Passado Obscuro, despite its more intense rhythms that make it a classically black metal track. The demo, initially self-produced, was later printed in a limited edition and in different formats (cassette, CD, digipack) by some small specialized labels, and this shows how Sergio França left no stone unturned to reach as many people as possible with his work: synonymous with passion, consistency and a pinch of insane madness. After all, who could think of, if not a particularly sensitive spirit, devoting himself to a musical genre that describes the darkest despair and the evil of living while being confined not to a desolate tundra or, to stay in Brazil, to an alienating megalopolis like São Paulo, but to sunny, seaside Aracruz?

2013 – Independent 2014 – Le Crépuscule du Soir Productions / Cvlminis / Panzer Records