Bury Yourself in the Best Funeral Doom of the Year With “Condescending” By Föhn

Funeral doom is a micro-genre that I rarely get the opportunity to write about. In fact, in the 10+ months I’ve been fortunate enough to contribute to Everything Is Noise, I have written about funeral doom a total of zero (0) times. It is, however, a rare genre. There are few bands who make this music, as it requires a lot of planning, patience, sculpting, and composition to do it well. On top of that, not every funeral doom band does it well to begin with.

It requires patience to listen to, as well, so you would be forgiven if you were unfamiliar with the niche genre. In brief, funeral doom is a genre of death and doom metal slowed down to a crawl. At its best, it is crushingly heavy, full of minor keys that are reminiscent of both doom metal and somber death songs from church organs, played at a dirge’s pace. The songs are long and require a heavy use of atmospheric touches to pull off with gravitas.

Today’s premiere, from Athens, Greece artist Föhn is an absolutely incredible take on the genre. I may editorialize a bit for premieres, but today, I am going full praise mode.  Föhn‘s new album, Condescending, is straight up some of the best funeral doom I have heard in years. Stream it below!

‘Dim the lights, light a cigarette, and think… Actually, how many times have you wasted your body? How many times have you been taken advantage of and how many times have you frittered your innocence away? Welcome to our world, we all made it this way together.’ – G. Schoinianakis, guitarist and drummer of Föhn says of Condescending.

Listening by candlelight would be ideal. Immerse yourself in the breathtaking, soul-crushing heft.

Föhn merge some incredible sounds on this album. On “Bereft” dark jazz flourishes heighten the somber atmosphere with saxophone, playing with dissonance and existential dread. “A Day After” opens with the foreshadowing sounds of children playing, the sample stretching into powerful guitars taking you on a journey of innocence and the inevitable demise of youth, ending in an enchanting chorus of layered vocals. Ambient synths welcome us to “The Weight of Nothing”, ironically featuring massively heavy, cavernous drums and a Yob indebted finale that ushers (pallbears?) the most head banging moment on Condescending. Finally, “Persona” closes the record, starting with the harrowing details of the dark side of sex work and the manipulation, abuse, and captivity therein via a long sample narrative from (presumably) a victim of such atrocity. Emphasized by more discordant dark jazz, “Persona” is one of the finest funeral doom tracks in recent memory.

Condescending is out on August 23rd via on Hypaethral Records in North America (order here) and These Hands Melt in Europe (order here). Follow Föhn on Instagram and Facebook.

Keep on doomin’!