1000 Funerals - Butterfly Decadence...

After a 6 year break between albums, Iran's 1000 Funerals have returned with 'Butterfly Decadence,' another installment of their brand of funeral meets gothic, death-doom. This album comes with a new line-up and is released through a Russian label, Satanarsa Records. Their début album 'Portrait Of A Dream' showed potential but failed to raise too much attention from the worldwide doom metal community but this album should do a lot better. This album is really a mixture of doom styles from funeral to gothic to death to the very atmospheric and ambient and they do each style with a fair amount of flair and finesse. If you like doom metal that paints a little picture in your head with each passage of music, then 1000 Funerals should be your cup of tea. I have a few issues with this album but they are all minor gripes as overall, this is a decent doom release.

I am guessing the main element they are going for here is atmosphere and in that regard, this is a big win. The instrumentation on the other hand is nothing to write home about, not that it is bad, it just isn't anything too mind-blowing. You would think after more than five years between albums, they would have found their sound but they still sound largely like Shape Of Despair but that is not too much of a bad thing. They take that influence one step further with a cover of the Shape of Despair's 'Night's Dew' so I guess I will start there even though it is the last track on 'Butterfly Decadence.' They don't really add anything new to the song but it is easily the most assessable tune the album offers. The rest of the album follows the Shape of Despair musical blueprint but with a few atmospheric twists and turns along the way.

The opening instrumental track 'Sutured Lips' gets the album off to a very atmospheric start with big melodic keyboards parts, flute, and violin. The tune is a spacey one, but not with a typical space-rock kind of vibe but it is very psychedelic in its own way. This leads into the 10 minute 'Of Love Then Deceit' and the atmosphere turns very ambient apart from the usual death-doom chugging riffing that comes and goes throughout the track. Some black-metalish growls are used in conjunction with chants and spoken word as vocals giving the track some funeralized moments. 'Nothing Has Ever Been' and the title track come next and they take the album into a more mellow direction while keeping the atmosphere firmly entrenched in the darkness.

The last track to talk about is 'Vast Infinite Beauty' and it is another powerfully atmospheric funeral doom track. This album which is short by funeral doom standards at under 40 minutes has its mesmerizing moments but also has its fair share of repetitive riffs and ideas that don't add much to the album. Some of the riffing is great but they tend to over-do things at times. Its main feature is the overwhelming, cinematic atmosphere which is quite captivating but musically, it is a little dull in parts. The sound while still heavy is lacking in some much-needed bottom-end and that does take away some of the magic this album could have had. However the production is very good as it usually is with any doom band that puts something out on a Russian label these days. The packaging is a bit of a let-down with average art and a lack of info but like I said in the first paragraph, these are all minor flaws. 'Butterfly Decadence' is unlikely to set the doom underground on fire but it is still a solid doom release......7.5/10.

1000 Funerals @ Myspace