Tumulation – Haunted Funeral Creations
Release Date: 4th August 2023
Label: Hammerheart Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death/Doom Metal.
FFO: Autopsy, Winter, Blood Incantation, Hooded Menace, Paradise Lost, Incantation.
Review By: Eric Wilt
As a fan of Conjureth and death/doom metal, I was really excited when I heard that the members of Conjureth switched instruments and recorded a death/doom metal album. Conjureth has been on a tear recently, releasing two Eps and two full lengths in the last three years to both critical and fan acclaim. Somehow the group has found time to start a new band with a varied sound. That new band is Tumulation, and their debut full length, Haunted Funeral Creations, is due out on August 4th.
Haunted Funeral Creations contains eight tracks, four of which were released earlier this year as an EP called Savage Blood Domain. These tracks, which make up songs five, six, seven, and eight, appear in the same order on the full length as they did on the EP with the final song, Abject Maelstrom, serving as an instrumental outro. The first track on Haunted Funeral Creations, Emergent Chaos Spirals, is 1:47 long and acts as an instrumental intro to the album. This leaves Shattered Under the Eclipse, Astral Sickness, and Rorschach as the only new full-length songs for those who have the EP, but, as this will serve as an introduction to the band for most people, Haunted Funeral Creations contains nearly 40 minutes of enjoyable death/doom metal.
While Conjureth’s albums are full of blistering death metal, Tumulation’s debut is pulling influences from death/doom legends of the 90s like Incantation and Paradise Lost as well as from modern masters like Blood Incantation and Hooded Menace. While it is obvious that Tumulation’s love of death/doom metal has been shaped by these bands, there is never a point on the album where it feels like they are ripping anyone off. Shattered Under the Eclipse is a perfect example of how Tumulation has made death/doom its own. After an eerie run on the guitar gets things started, the band moves into a mid-paced groove that is more fun than a barrel of headless, zombie monkeys. The song speeds up at times and eventually returns to the opening riff before shifting gears completely and slowing things down to a glacial crawl. All in all, that one song includes all of the things I love about death/doom metal—including evil vocals—except for a guitar solo. The rest of the album follows in this same vein, with songs like Astral Sickness, Rorschach, and Bound to the Rakasha being other standout tracks. If only the band had added a guitar solo here and there, these songs would be even more enjoyable.
The one thing that will lower my overall score of Haunted Funeral Creations is that the execution is sloppy at times. From errant guitar noises like the one at 0:46 in Shattered Under the Eclipse, to times throughout the album when the left and right guitars don’t match up, to the loose drumming like that which can be heard at the beginning of Sterilizing Winds, Haunted Funeral Creations is not as tight as I would like it to be. Tumulation immediately shows that they are skilled at writing catchy and fun death/doom songs, and I have no doubt that they will be back with an even better sophomore album. I just hope that when they do, they spend a little more time in the studio making sure things are tight and perfect.
Overall, Haunted Funeral Creations is a solid debut album. The songs are great examples of death/doom metal if you can overlook a little sloppiness.
(3 / 5)
