Antimkriyaa (The Funeral) Reviewed!

Reviewer: Nishanth Ks.

TRACKS:

1. Funeral Depression

2. Funeral Lullaby

3. Funeral Night

Contemporary ‘one-man’ music scene suggests --- Go into DIY mode. We have a lot of people now doing it themselves, even many musicians who were previously part of major bands or are still part of them, have gone on to compose, record and produce their own musical endeavours. Now it’s a fact that the frontal lobe is the primary center of creativity in the brain. These guys have this particular section of the brain going haywire. Complimented by a rather strong work ethic some of these guys taste marginl success. Modern day metal artists such as Skyharbor, Chimp Spanner, Panopticon, Alcest,Cobalt etcetera etcetera comes to mind. Then again there are others who don’t enjoy much popularity like the aforementioned bands, and pretty much create music just to satiate their own hunger for new music. They cherish their obscurity rather than chasing success through popularity. Thus here we have musicians making use of their excess creativity. 

‘Now with the introduction of new programmable music enabling softwares into the arena, one really need not be a musician at all.’ - Now that’s a sweeping generalization everyone easily tends to make. The fact is that only people who are either blessed(got nothing to do with god) or better….. lucky enough to be bestowed with enough creativity, can put them to use.

Nitish Sharma one such bloke from Shimla does it rather pretty well. One has to keep in mind that he is also the bassist for the band ‘Screams of Funeral’. He employs several pre – prepared and ‘already in existence’ musical loops and kinda mixes them in a particular order to make a very interesting listen. The fact that he never played any single instrument on it and was just ‘well executed looping/mixing’ is more of a case of ‘ingenuity’ than being considered ‘derogatory’ by other musicians. His songwriting skills are definitely put to use in producing the album ‘Antimkriyaa(The Funeral)’.

The EP comprises of 3 tracks, all taking an ambient black metal approach, uncluttering all the bad production noise that sometimes plagues Black Metal. They paint a very bleak picture as the name suggests, maybe a more funeral doom BM approach. The ‘piece de resistance’ however is the minimalist side of the album. Nitish has adroitly prepared loops and electronic sounds and inserted them at exactly the right moments. It’s a very emotional ride, ones got to admit. The opening track ‘Funeral Depression’ starts off with a wolf howling, followed by keys played in the typical ‘funeral tone’(Evil laughs –WIN WIN). Drums catch up later on, and the track maintains the overall eerie feel. But one does feel the track is rather, a bit too contrived and pretentious. The next two tracks are best tagged as ambient forays into BM. They are both beautiful pieces worth every patient listener’s time. ‘Funeral Lullaby’ definitely the best track of the three, has a unique serene feel to it. I mean, who would have thought that subtle chime-like keys combined with thunder crashing in the background would have sounded good?? Just beyond the 2:37 mark is a cool looped, possibly violin section that sounds just ethereal. The next track albeit the last, ‘Funeral Night’ is a return to the spookiness observed on the first track. A distant wail begins the track. (I wish this 1st part of the song was the soundtrack to the new ‘Diablo – III’ game.). The song has this ‘puppy sound’ section with possibly their mom defending them..interesting.. The evil laughs return to be followed by a good keys/drum section before it all finally comes to a close..

The Charm of the album lay in the fact that Nitish is able to create some real good new music, even after incorporating the weirdest of noises in the most unlikeliest of fashions. Yes..and without any instruments, just fruity loops. A testament to the untapped talent that is characteristic of all things underground. More of a sign of brimful talent than the lack there of. Everyone should lend this a listen.

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