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Encoffination: Elegant funerals for the unknown dead
03/12/12 || gk
Encoffination’s 2011 album O’ hell, shine in thy whited sepulchres was a monolith of filthy death doom that grew on me with every listen. Now, barely a year later the duo of Elektrokutioner and Ghoat are back with their latest offering. “Elegant funerals for the unknown dead” is a five song EP that lasts for just over 20 minutes and continues the band’s inexorable death march.
The 12” starts with “Elegance above flesh” which feels like a direct continuation from “O’ hell, shine in thy whited sepulchres” and is a pretty kickass song with its massive main riff and vocals that sound ridiculously deep but it’s the atmosphere that the duo create over these 6 minutes that’s most impressive. “Gaunt and swallow” is marginally more upbeat but not by much. Side B opens with “Deathless genesis” which is typically slow and crawling with insane amounts of dirt in the sound casting a pall over the riffs but the band manage to break through the muck with an up tempo almost punk part before settling down again into a crawling atmospheric doom metal haze. “Portals” has a dark ambient feel to it with a fuzzy guitar riff that sort of ambles along for a couple of minutes with samples of church bells and noises in the background and no percussion. Should have sounded like self-indulgent crap but it works and “Hear me, O death” sounds like a prayer played out backwards with more church bells and ambient effects. These last two songs are more ambient soundscapes than death metal songs and might be pointing at a new direction for the band (or maybe I’m just reaching).
The slowed down tremolo picked riffs, crawling rhythms and subterranean vocals are all here but what really stands out is the sound. If anything, the sound here is even murkier than what the band usually dishes out. Maybe it’s a result of mastering for vinyl but this shit actually sounds more diseased than my “O’ hell, shine in thy whited sepulchres” CD (in a good way).
Elektrokutioner and Ghoat have just put out another impressive slice of lo-fi death doom. It feels like the logical successor to the previous full length but at the same time the duo might be progressing into more ambient territory. It’s still raw, heavy and really fucken dirty but there’s a sense of progression in the song writing and Encoffination are not staying still. The haters will continue to hate but if you liked anything these guys have put out so far, then check out “ Elegant funerals for the unknown dead”. You will not be disappointed.
- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Debemur Morti Productions
- Website: Encoffination MySpace
- Band
- Ghoat: guitars, bass, vocals
- Elektrokutioner: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Elegance above Flesh
- 02. Gaunt and Swallow
- 03. Deathless Genesis
- 04. Portals
- 05. Hear Me, O’ Death
