Funeral Fullmoon – Unholy Kingdom Of Diabolic Emperors

Over the past few years Chileans Black Metal has seen numerous of new acts emerge, many of which have featured the same musicians who teamed up in the so-called “Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague”. A somewhat closed circle of like-minded bands and musicians like Grymmstalt, 13^th Temple, Gryftigæn, Winterstorm and Wampyric Rites. To this same scene also belonged Funeral Fullmoon, a duo that has released a discography of considerable size since their inception in 2019. Although it remains a little unclear, it seems like Funeral Fullmoon is no longer part of this inner circle of South-American Black Metal, but this didn’t affect any of the band’s musical output as ‘Unholy Kingdom Of Diabolic Emperors’ still sounds profoundly Chilean.

Well, Chilean… Yes, alright, Chilean. But then again, if we could really speak of such a thing as typical Chilean Raw Black Metal then it is typified by a thoroughly Darkthrone-based sound that breathes a little more atmosphere. That atmosphere is mostly achieved by a muffled sound that adds to the authentic overall feel of the music. And so is the case with this third full-length album by Funeral Fullmoon, again released by Inferna Profundus Records (who seems to be deeply involved into the Chilean Black Metal scene). On ‘Unholy Kingdom Of Diabolic Emperors’ we are being treated to some of the best Black Metal the southern continent has to offer, the album offers a total riff bonanza in that almost trademark muffled sound. The ghost of Darkthrone and Armagedda (pre-‘Only True Believers’) haunts basically every song, but without it becoming too much of a borrowing-party, instead it feels more like a complete and genuine worship of Norwegian riff-based Black Metal. The simplicity of the music shows that it is not necessary to come up with anything that pushes the boundaries of the Black Metal genre or even anything remotely new to deliver utterly compelling music – on the very contrary I would almost say. The four tracks, not counting the intro, interlude and outro, are some of the best compositions to have reached my ears when it comes to raw but atmospheric Black Metal.

Not only the uncomplicated nature of the music makes it utterly irresistible, also because of its very short length, 27 minutes in total including 7 minutes worth of intro, intermezzo and outro, it feels like it is impossible to withstand the urge to hit the replay-button. I would not claim to have heard every single release from the “Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague” inner circle of South-American Black Metal, but I will claim that ‘Unholy Kingdom Of Diabolic Emperors’ is definitely one of the best releases I heard so far and, to me, places Funeral Fullmoon right on top of its native food chain.