Asunder

Works Will Come Undone

Written by: EW on 29/08/2009 01:09:04

As the summer that barely came ebbs out its last lights in frequent bouts of wind, rain and general meteorological misery, now seems an apt time to break out that most downtrodden and bleakest of genres to accompany us all through the autumn and winter months, funeral doom metal. The recent, brilliant, Ahab album reminded me after a relative drought of funereal listening just how powerful and fucking great life can be in the slow lane, thus influencing my decision to dust off one of my personal faves from the genre, Asunder's 2006 piece "Works Will Come Undone".

Even by the lofty heights of funeral doom the composition of this album does not make easy reading for the light of heart. Asunder's second full length provides just two songs in a mammoth 72 minutes and 49 seconds, "A Famine" being a paltry 22 minutes and "The Rite Of Finality" occupying a gargantuan 50 minutes of disc space.

Putting into words my exact feelings towards this album is difficult, as well as the fear it will be probably pointless for so few who read this will 'get' music this painfully slow and uncompromising. The combined vocals of Dino Sommese and John Gossard are wretched growls for the most part, though both songs in their early stages feature some effective dual-vocalling between one clean, delayed and echoing vocal against a harsher throatier delivery. As would be expected for songs so long the guitars don't play a continual role, often providing a riff or punctuation of the chord every few seconds, thus allowing the droning feedback of the amplifiers to do much of the dirty work. These guitars however maintain a cleaner sound and clarity in respect to Ahab for example where their guitar sound alone was responsible for the claustrophobic, despairing dread noticed across their albums. Which leads me on to what about Asunder earns them the necessary despairing feel to be lauded as a funeral doom great - the cello work of Jackie Perez-Gratz. By no means is she an ever-present across the album's journey but when the mournful sound of her instrument registers, the gloom already experienced disappears into a fog of utter darkness and sobriety.

Like the best extreme doom, such is the vastness of the 'riffs' played that their dirge-like speed seems entirely necessary; they simply are too heavy and concrete to move any faster. This facet, to me largely created by Electric Wizard, is a great boon to any band that possesses it. "A Famine" starts off like an entertainer at a funeral, too saddened and emotional to really do much but weep, before the first wave of riffs hits in, beginning their slow tectonic movements across the landscape punctuated as they are by the beautiful cello of Perez-Gratz. Such is the sadness that I feel in what could only be described as the lead riff in the opening song a feel of mellowness is apparent, in the kind of a man who has accepted his fate in the final hours before his execution, a tragic piece of extreme music.

Where "A Famine" could be seen as the build-up to execution, "The Rite Of Finality" is surely the reading of the last rites before the act of death. The cello enters at a very early stage to the sound of soft and clean guitar strokes and softened drum blows as the song slowly drifts into more dynamic territory with a bounding, heavier lead riff. Realising all this may sound like impervious drab, whilst being unapproachable to almost all like certain black metal albums, “Works…” is based upon the indescribable feel when listened to in the near dark and in the right settings. This becomes all the more apparent as around the 24 minute stage, the guitars and cello slow ebb away as the last breathe of oxygen is taken to be replaced by realisation of the death via 26-odd minutes of feedback-laden drone. The song could be read as being finished at this point as the distance moved in this time is almost non-existent but it is not without it's purpose. While too long I would proffer, it does feel like the journey has crossed into the after-world; the feel of nothing making any sense but a coruscating, vibrating band of droning feedback clearly not 'normal' in anyone's senses.

Finally, proceedings slowly, quietly draw to an end. Music of this nature was never meant to have mass appeal but with this result, Asunder may have made an album that has become so bleak that it could gain an extra appeal. Maybe not, but it is one of the most intense and extreme doom albums I've heard and were it not for the significant length of concluding feedback, we could've seen it's results become even higher.

9

Download: Either track!
For The Fans Of: Ahab, Warning, funeral doom
Listen: Myspace

Release date 28.10.2006
Profound Lore Records

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