Funebre (Fin) - "Cranial Torment" demo, 1989

While the Swedish death metal scene may have been more prominent in the eyes of metal's more mainstream media, Finland had an equally strong scene in the late 80s and early 90s. Bands from Finland tended to be more obscure and occult sounding in their approach, often opting for more slower, doomier parts than their Swedish counterparts. This type of music is getting more and more recognition these days through bands like Funebrarum who continue to carry the torch for this rather underapprciated style. Interestingly enough, Norway, in rather close proximity with both countries, did not have a particularly strong death metal scene during this time; many of the death metal bands that were active in the late 1980s, most of which only released demos or the odd 7" here and there, jumped ship to black metal when the 1990s rolled around.

Funebre's first demo, "Cranial Torment" is an example of the heaviest music this country could produce. The death metal scene in Finland was just beginning to take shape in 1989. A handful of bands released demos in 1988 (including the classic Repulse "On a Car Trip in Sweden"), and by 1989, many bands were playing in the slower, drudging style that Finland would become known for. The sound on this demo is extremely bass-heavy and loud. Its one of the heaviest recordings I've heard, both in terms of the slower speeds and the massive guitar tone. While it still has a bit of a raw and unpolished edge, the amount of bass will guarantee to make anything around the speakers shake when turned up to an appropriate volume.

The songs on here tend to be somewhat long, averaging around five or so minutes in length over five tracks. Compositionally this music tends to be rather simple, utilizing a large amount of crushing mid-tempo riffs which server to emphasize the pummeling faster paced sections. The solos are shrill and the vocals are gutteral and low pitched, exactly the complimentary elements that this type of music needs.

Two songs from this demo would be later reissued on 7", and the band would do two more recordings: a demo in 1990 (an excellent recording that isn't quite as heavy as this one), and a full length "Children of the Scorn" (which to this day I still find rather lackluster). "Cranial Torment" remains their best recording, and while not as out there as other Finnish masterpieces such as Demilich, it serves as an excellent example of the strange, heavy and brooding brand of death metal that Finland excelled in, and certainly deserves to be included in the same sentence as the rest of the Finnish classics; any fan of ultra-heavy death metal would be doing themselves a great disservice by not checking this out.