Norway’s FUNERAL Make New Album ‘Praesentialis In Aeternum’ Available For Streaming In Its Entirety
December 8th, 2021
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Drammen, Norway-based funeral doom metal band Funeral issue sixth full-length studio album Praesentialis In Aeternum on December 10th, 2021 through Season Of Mist.
The outing can be streamed in its entirety via YouTube below.
The band commented: “Funeral return with a contemplative exploration of the human condition. Baronial in atmosphere, deep in tone, vast in scope and for the first time in the history of the band conveyed in their native tongue. You are invited to listen and cogitate.”
In 2019, vocalist Sindre Nedland “woke up from his slumber” and told drummer Anders Eek “he was ready to focus music again. I had the whole music demoed and ready, so it quickly snowballed from there,” Eek recalled.
For the first time ever, not only are the lyrics fully in Norwegian but they were also written by an outside collaborator, a “personal friend” of Eek who happens to be a psychologist. “He’s both a close friend and a fan of the band. So, he knows exactly how I roll and what the band is all about. I knew he was writing on the side so one day, as a joke almost, I told me about five years ago ‘Hey, why don’t you write lyrics for my bands instead?’ and within five months, he did! His lyrics are more or less his take on philosopher Emmanuel Kant’s work. Initially, I thought about maybe translating them to English but it would have meant redoing them so in the end, we choose to keep them as they were. The booklet will include a little text explaining what they’re all about for those who don’t speak Norwegian.”
Musically, Anders describes Praesentialis In Aeternum (something along the line of ‘Here Eternally’) as a “natural progression. I know we have some fans who are only into the first albums and those who discovered us in the early 00s but this new opus has a little bit of everything for everybody. The symphonic elements are far more bombastic yet much well more done, thanks to the evolution of technology since Oratorium. It’s in a way a mixture of our three last albums yet our most diverse work yet, with both quite concise and very epic pieces. As a matter of fact, we recorded something like ten songs but vowed to choose only the six best to get the best album possible.”
Among the tracks are one originally written during sessions for third album From These Sounds, one co-written with former founding member Thomas Angell (who left in 2000), and – as part of the deluxe version a Candlemass cover version (‘Samarithan’) originally recorded back in 2005 with their then singer Frode Forsmo.
Guesting on the track ‘Ånd’ is Lars Nedland, Sindre’s own brother of Borknagar and Solefald fame.
Praesentialis In Aeternum was recorded at Strand Studio and Toproom Studio with producer / sound engineers Børge Finstad and Marius Strand. Mixing and mastering was handled by Børge Finstad at Toproom Studios, meanwhile.
Cover artwork was designed by Christopher Rådlund.
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The track listing is as follows:
01. ‘Ånd’
02. ‘Materie’
03. ‘Erindring I – Hovmod’
04. ‘Erindring II – Fall’
05. ‘Oppvåkning’
06. ‘Dvelen’
Bonus tracks
07. ‘Her Til Evig Tid (ånd: epilog)’
08. ‘Vekst (erindring : prolog)’
09. ‘Shades From These Wounds’
10. ‘Samarithan’ (Candlemass cover)
Funeral’s recording line-up was as follows:
Sindre Nedland (vocals)
Erlend Nybø (guitars)
Magnus Tveiten (guitars)
Rune Gandrud (bass)
Anders Eek (drums)
Andrè Aaslie (orchestration)
Directed, filmed, and produced by by the band themselves, a music video was released for the track ‘Ånd’, while an official lyric video was created for the song ‘Materie’. In addition, an official guitar playthrough video was issued for the track ‘Erindring I – Hovmod’. All three clips can also be viewed below.
Fifth studio record Oratorium was released in November 2012 via Grau Records.
Promotional photograph by Jorn Veberg.
