Another month, another Unholy reissue, which is a Good Thing of course. These pioneering Funeral Finns deserve more credit than they usually get and any fan of Funeral Doom, or even Death Doom should at least be on a nodding acquaintance with them.
Anyhow, Rapture was their third full length coming some five years after their primitive debut From The Shadows and four after their sophomore ' Ring Of Power', yet only a year before their Gracefallen swansong. A career of two halves then?
So it seems.
Rapture opens its darkness on the wings of a full instrumental ' Into Cold Light'. It’s a terrific slow flowing subterranean river of a song; dark, gently undulating keyboards with the riff as the huge undertow. It's the first sign that Rapture exists in its own bleak world and we are simply swept in on its own terms. Reference points are few in this cavernous soundscape but perhaps the inevitable whisper of Skepticism here, an echo of the monolithic and inhumanly ponderous first album Paradise Lost in the metamorphic sound of the male vocals fused into the riff there; the truly mesmeric feel of the lost female voice amidst the darkness that calls up the remarkable ghost of Monumentums 'Ad Nauseum' just around the corner. But all slowly, patiently carved in Unholy's own hand and eroded grain by grain from the darkness.
Take ' After God': This is a song that has patience. It waits for the pulsing, bobbing bass line to bring you into it's low ceilinged cavern where that resonant voice grinds into your soul before allowing you to drift even deeper into the catacombs.
Unzeitgeist throws turbulence into the mix. Harsh vocals and an unsettled riff clash with atonal keys before the more even, despairing 'Wretched' and the finality of 'Deluge' wash you away.
It’s quite a journey; once inside you are isolated but there is no fear in this album, more a sense of melancholy having found its place and being content to share as you pass through. The riffs are slow like a limestone cavern forming and the melody when it comes echoes through you and I simply looked on in wonder.
There are a couple of live tracks tacked on to this release but, seriously, they add nothing. They don't need to. If you like funeral doom, or simply dark, brooding atmospherics then just buy this. Unholy captured at their zenith.
Essential and a certifiable classic.
http://www.myspace.com/originalunholy
Gizmo
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