We are pleased to join with Nuclear War Now! to present a première for mysterious dark robed doomed cult The Funeral Orchestra‘s title-track from their long-awaited second album, Negative Evocation Rites.
As regularly documented in the pages of ZT, Nicklas ‘Terror’ Rudolfsson has been on something of a creative roll lately. Besides putting together Saltas, having resurrected both Runemagick in 2017 and Sacramentum last year, he’s dug out the monks robes he’s been keeping safely in the back of his wardrobe for a torch in hand walk through the deepest pit with The Funeral Orchestra.
Originally created back in 2002 with a staff of anonymous members to “create a form of heavy, minimalist and obscure doom music”, TFO was more or less at first “an occasional project, with many unreleased demo recordings”. The band only played one gig in Gothenburg in 2003 after the release of their debut album Feeding The Abyss on Norway’s Aftermath Music. Several low-key releases followed but after their split CD with Ocean Chief in 2010, they retreated back into obscurity. Until last year…
“We’ve been talking about doing something new on and off over the years. But it wasn’t until we decided in 2019 to do more gigs that year that really set us on our path, including recording a new album at last. after few failed attempts. We also got a new percussionist in the lineup as the initial plan was to have two. But our old one quit the band before the album was recorded so we are currently a trio. We nevertheless didn’t use a ‘normal’ drumkit and our percussionist stands up while playing with two big toms and a snare or smaller tom, plus various forms of cymbals, bells and more.”
Earlier this year, the band returned to the stage for the first time in 17 years in Oslo before recording seven new songs, with four of them turned up on Negative Evocation Rites, which is due for release through Nuclear War Now! on June 30th. “We wanted to stick to a regular LP length, plus both tracks ‘Negations I’ and ‘Negations II’ are like one long track and ought to be sequenced together. Out of the three remaining songs, one will be included on a forthcoming split CD – yet to be announced – while the last two will probably surface later on as bonus, we don’t know yet.”
Negative Evocation Rites is probably, next to Saltas’ last album, one of Rudolfsson most extreme recordings yet. One excruciating, painfully slow and quite ritualistic doom ceremony, celebrated by cloaked, sinister figures whose names shall remain unknown. “When we started TFO in 2002, we did not want our personas to influence the spirit of the orchestra. From this we chose a form of anonymity. It’s not that we are strict about it now, but our names are not worthy of being included in the credits. It’s the music, the atmosphere and ambience that is important. Yes, we know there are one hundred bands using the same concept and we know we ain’t the first to do so, far from it. But the truth is that there have been several members involved over the years and the current lineup contains only one original member. So we chose to be consistent and continue with the same formula during our new era and second full album as well.”
