Funereality – Til Death

Funereality is a Swedish band that has been lurking deep in the recesses of the death metal underground for over a decade now. Largely confined to a yearly string of demos and EPs, 2022 finally saw sole member Joachim put together this full length together. To understand whether you’ll like this album or not, you have to ask yourself an important question – do you like Autopsy? If the answer is no, I recommend you stop reading this review immediately and move on with your life (and potentially revisit some Autopsy albums because what the hell). Joachim makes no secret his love for the US act, whether it’s the band logo, art or the actual music itself.

With the old school Death Metal revival, there have been an endless parade of imitators that have tried to emulate the repulsive and putrid magic of the early Autopsy releases, but Joachim has the upper hand on his peers by going for something slightly different. As the name Funereality might suggest, the focal influence point of this record is not Severed Survival or Mental Funeral – the albums most take as a reference point; instead, Joachim seems much more centred around 1992’s Acts of the Unspeakable. This record was in a way a marriage of the earlier punkier driven material of Severed Survival mixed with the doomy tempos and morbid melodies of Mental Funeral.

Considering this is largely a worship project, Joachim does a top notch job at delivering a passionate record that is a love letter to everything we love about Autopsy. It is obvious a lot of work gone behind the scenes to ensure a high degree of fidelity starting with the guitar tone and mix. The riffs are extremely heavy, producing a pummeling effect and transmitting the heaviness of early Sabbath and Trouble, but also randomly throwing in great melodic moments that are utterly twisted and deranged in nature – one only has to listen to the nasty and decaying notes on ‘Knulla Ink’, ‘Coprohagus Necromagus’ or ‘Ett ynkligt kräk’ to see. Joachim’s vocals are a dead ringer for Chris Reifert himself, sounding like a barbaric caveman. The drumming is also impressively well done, transitioning very effectively between the slower segments to the rapid-fire Hardcore moments with ease. The duration of the album helps quite a bit (only 25 minutes) as it’s a short-lived, but intense affair.

Is Funereality going to win an originality contest? No, and that might be the only real defect of this record – it could deal with a tinge more personal touch and I would like to see that in future releases. Nonetheless, for an Autopsy lover like myself, this record channels the disgusting and rancid nature of the band in a way that is engaging and still feels pretty fresh without feeling the need to just pop on an Autopsy record instead. If you need an album to release your inner troglodyte, this might be the right option.