When people talk about death metal from Finland, the names that are always brought up as the best are the usual culprits of Demigod, Convulse, Amorphis and Demilich, but what about Funebre? "Children of the Scorn" is the only full-length album that Funebre ever recorded, which is unfortunate because this album is great and severely underrated. I'm still not sure why these guys aren't as cherished by the metal underground, especially since this album preceded any of the now legendary records that those other aforementioned bands released.
At first I thought it might have been the glimpses of technicality and general weirdness of some of the riffs and basslines that might have turned people off from this record, but Demilich is pretty technical and a lot of pretentious death metal fans love to wank to "Nespithe." The riffs and the craziness that ensues with a lot of them throughout "Children of the Scorn" are stellar (though, some are cool for a listen but not all that memorable), especially on songs like "Congenital Defeat" and "Walls that Held Screams." Instead of taking the same approach to constructing some dark music by adding numerous tremolo passages and downtuned, doomy passages, Funebre delivers some crazy sounding riffs which add a nice sense of chaos to the music, placing significance on the actual music rather than trying to sound evil.
Don't get me wrong, these guys definitely can conjure up some vile sounding music when they want. While not settling for the usual heavy and muted tremolo bursts, Funebre goes for that eerie sound by using some higher notes for their weapon of tremolo picking assault, with "Walls that Held Screams" and "Slumber End" being two of the best instances of this. And of course there are the melodic parts that death metal bands from Finland have made so essential to their morbid sounding music. The melody near the beginning of "Waiting for the Arrival" should have no problem in sending chills down the listener's spine, while the melodic passage of "Blood on White" is exactly how melody should be integrated with death metal, and not like that shite from Gothenburg.
In between the crazy weirdness that Funebre does so well and the darker parts of their music, there are some heavy riffs ("Grip of Insanity" and "Redeemed From Time") that compliment the other parts well and give the listener an opportunity to bang their head. There really isn't much else to discuss regarding "Children of the Scorn," other than the riff in "Grip of Insanity" which sounds a lot like the riff on a certain Death song. This album isn't as great as "World Without God" or "Slumber of Sullen Eyes," nor does it have a lasting effect like those two albums, but it definitely deserves to be mentioned alongside them because this is a damn fine slab of filthy death metal.
Highlights
"Waiting for the Arrival"
"Shiver"
"Redeemed From Time"
Final Rating
Masterpiece [9.0/10]
