Old Funeral - Our Condolences (1988 - 1992)
This is yet another compilation album of all the Old Funeral recordings out there. This might be recommendable if it hadn’t been done four or five times already. Face it, the only reason anybody cares about Old Funeral is because Varg Vikernes (back when he was known by his birth name, Kristian Vikernes) was in this band. Varg, of course, gained fame as Count Grishnackh of Burzum. Other members included Abbath of Immortal and Jorn from Hades Almighty/ex-Immortal, all of whom had short stints in the band. Musically, Old Funeral can best be described as Thrash. It isn’t harsh or brutal enough to be Death Metal (though some might call their music that) and it certainly doesn’t sound like Black Metal. Their later stuff had some Black Metal and more Death Metal elements but they never strayed beyond Thrash most of the time. The musicianship on this compilation is very loose. Old Funeral never got beyond the demo/7-inch EP stage of their career and only existed for four or five years. All of the recordings here are from demo, rehearsal or live tapes except for the Devoured Carcass EP, which was on vinyl. The earliest material, from The Fart That Should Not Be demo (yes, that was really the title…), is very rough and shows the band at their formative stages. You can tell that they were a bunch of guys who liked to fuck around in the studio and played Metal for fun back in those days. The later material, most notably the Abduction of Limbs demo and the Devoured Carcass EP, shows more musical maturity and focus. The playing is still a bit sloppy in places but there was definitely more thought put into the music. The “rare and unreleased” material that would be the main selling point for this compilation is okay. Given that it is mostly rehearsal and live stuff, the sound quality isn’t the best. If you’re a hardcore fan of old Norwegian Black Metal and must have everything, this might have some value. For me, the appeal of Old Funeral ended after the first compilation, The Older Ones, that was released in 1999. Once I heard the main recordings (the Abduction of Limbs demo and Devoured Carcass), everything else was filler as far as I was concerned. If you don’t already have a version of this already, it’s interesting as a historical document more than it is a great musical release. It shows what some of the more notable members of the early Norwegian Black Metal scene were doing prior to becoming famous. For those looking for a lost legendary recording, you’re going to be disappointed.
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