Asunder – Works Will Come Undone (2006)

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Asunder – Works Will Come Undone (2006)

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Oh man, this is slow and heavy. I mean, this is like a depressed dinosaur (one of the sauropods, the big long-necked ones) on Valium, all slow and plodding and huge and sad and heavy. When you say this is a slab of Funeral Doom, you really mean a slab, the music so palpable you could poke it with a knife. You could probably cut it, too, but it’s so damn huge than cutting it wouldn’t do any good, to completely slaughter my metaphors.

ASUNDER is a group from San Francisco that stops short of calling itself a super group, featuring members of WEAKLING, THE GAULT, AMBER ASYLUM, DYSTOPIA, and LACHRYMOSE. Maybe I’m a bad Metalhead, but none of those names ring a bell. The band has appeared on some splits with FLIES ON FLESH and GRAVES AT SEA. This is their second full-length, after 2004’s “A Clarion Call.” As it’s my first encounter with them, I can’t tell you if the style is substantially different.

For the most part, it’s not quite as slow as some of the Funeral Doom I’ve heard (INTAGLIO/INTALIA). “A Famine” stretches 22 minutes and “The Rite Of Finality” 50, though that figure is something of a lie: after about the twenty-fourth minute, the remaining half of the song is ambient distortion, usually just one sustained note that’s not even doing enough to be considered droning, though occasionally there’s some far away, panicked breathing. Is there even a target audience for that? Who actually wants to hear this? It’s really quite frustrating. The first half doesn’t do much to grab your attention either.

That being said, I do like “The Famine” a bit more than “The Rite Of Finality.” More happens in the song and it can reach a quicker pace (relatively), with more listenable guitar work and a slightly more dynamic vocal performance provided by either guitarist John Gossard or drummer Dino Sommese. The promo says there’s two vocalists, but honestly I can only pick up one low rasp. At times here the guitar (and cello, courtesy of Jackie Gratz) reminds me a bit of one of my personal Doom favourites, SKUMRING. What else is remarkable about this song is the way it collapses under its own weight every three or four minutes, each time to reform slightly differently.

If you’re a fan of Funeral Doom, you should check this out. If you’re not, “A Famine” is probably actually a good way to start, but “The Rite Of Finality” is a daunting listen even if you’re only in it for the first half.

-metal-observer.com