Review by JD on November 22, 2008.

There are many bands that have used this overly used name, and most don’t really live up to it. Upon hearing SpikeFarm’s unique and very unsettled new signing, Sick... the name that so many bands have tried on for size, finally has a real owner.

This trio of demented people can be only described as a severely bastardised crossing of Doom Metal, Industrial music like early Ministry and then added in unholy satanic lyrics that eats it way through the rotting flesh of the living like a hungry mutated maggot. This album is not for the squeamish or the faint of heart, or for the normal Black Metal fans for that matter... yet the band is compelling and scary at the same time.

Sick is just simply very Doomy, depressing music that creates a world of morbid thoughts and deep torment melancholy that has ever been seen. They are sort of like November’s Doom in lyrical complexities, but their hearts seem as black as Satan’s soul and are clearly out to feed off of the unwary, the weak or the unlucky.. Musically, they are not overly ‘sparkling’ in that department, but they still end up kicking your ass with their heavy dirges they bring.

The album is hard to get through just once, and perhaps will not be played too many times by most people out there... but one listen of this bleak and highly deranged band is worth buying the damn thing. Sick is the unofficial yet twisted soundtrack for a world that no one needs to really know about, because it is their own minds.


Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8
Originality: 9
Overall: 8

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by JD on May 23, 2009.

Norwegian Blackened Doom Metal mixed effortlessly with some real deal Death Metal... that is what we exactly have here. American based The Funeral Pyre are explained as heavy black shrouded metal with the overall ambiance of a funeral home just before a atomic bomb goes off... when they explode, seems like that atomic attack. Extreme, huh?

The Funeral Pyre comes at you from Los Angeles, and has been a breath of fresh air from the stagnancy of that scene. They are ethereal, dark and maximumly heavy. This is not in any way close to the glam metal LA has offered up in the past, or tries to do now... this is pure and malevolent metal at it's maximum output. Their EP is as extreme and fierce as any release that has came out this year... perhaps in the last few years.

"December" Ep has only five songs on it's shiny surface, but each ones are quality slabs of heavy and exceedingly mind numbing music that has the power to reach into the darkest corner of peoples souls, and finds that one horrible place that is better off hidden.... even from ones own self. They then begin to ravage what is left of your spirit from there, and their job is nearly done.

'Into The Soil' is a doomish hell spawned sound that plods your cranium until it cracks into several pieces, while 'Frail And Dying' is a Death Metal classic that torches your mind in one fell swoop. The Ep is exactly like that throughout... and leaves you wishing that this had been a full album instead. It is well assured, The Funeral Pyre will be a band to watch.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8.5
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 7.5
Originality: 8
Overall: 8.5

Rating: 8.1 out of 10