Album Review: Marche Funèbre – “After the Storm” (Death/Doom)

Written by Kirk

Oh my god, you guys…can you feel that? That shift in the temperature. That change in the barometric pressure. That magnificent drop in humidity as the leaves slowly change color from green to yellow, red, orange, and brown. My favorite season is upon us…FALL IS COMING. And with the coming of autumn means one thing: DOOM METAL SEASON IS UPON US ONCE AGAIN.

Now, before you all run to your closets and start pulling out your Novembers Doom UGG boots, Aiwass infinity scarves, and go to Starbucks to order that venti pumpkin spice latté with extra hazelnut and cinnamon, please keep in mind that I’m a 24/7 Doom Metal Appreciator™️. I don’t need the seasons to change in order to harness my depression; I’m always depressed. But let’s be honest with one another for just a few moments: fall really is the most doom metal season out there. It’s not a question, it’s a fact (there’s literally a band named Novembers Doom). So what better way to herald the coming of the best season (suck it, summer!) than with a healthy dose of death/doom?

I distinctly remember when I first became aware of the particular brand of death/doom that Marche Funèbre plays. It was late December in 2019, and I’d recently become aware of an utterly fantastic record label by the name of Hypnotic Dirge Records. They peddle primarily in black and doom metal, they offered their entire catalog for a whopping $25 CAD, and you could also subscribe to their Bandcamp store for a mere $5 CAD each month. So, like a moth to the flame, I burned $5 CAD (plus currency exchange fees) and got, like, 100 albums. WHAT A STEAL!  But more specifically I got two Marche Funèbre albums:  Into the Arms of Darkness and a split EP with Eye of Solitude. And as I worked my way through the label catalogue, those two releases kept popping back into rotation. Marche Funèbre’s particular style leaned more heavily towards death metal than doom, but their songs were long (Into the Arms of Darkness is over an hour long), and they were just so intense and engaging. Fast forward to Fall 2020 and Hypnotic Dirge gave us Marche Funèbre’s fourth album, Einderlicht, which—again—found its way into heavy rotation. Clocking in at just a few minutes shy of an hour, it saw the band leaning more heavily into the doom side of things than they have on previous albums, giving the songs more room to breathe and create an atmosphere of dread that Marche Funèbre hadn’t really explored in the past.

Fast forward again to 2022, which saw the release of the compilation record Death and Loss, a collection of songs from the EPs Lost and Death Wish Woman, but things had been pretty quiet for the Belgian death doomers. That is until Ardua Music announced on their Instagram page on May 21 that Marche Funèbre would be releasing a new album in late September. And let me tell you, this album is absolutely worth the wait. Akin to the statement I made on my Anna Pest review, sometimes taking a little extra time to fine tune your project is actually a good thing. From the first few notes of opening song “In a Haze”, this sounds like a band rejuvenated. Think How Stella Got Her Groove Back, but…um…depressed (but also angry); there’s a sense of purpose—glorious purpose—to these riffs that claw at the heavens while drenched in the tears of sorrows past. Also, the dichotomy of the vocals on this track are insane, switching from anguished death metal gutturals to harrowed, majestic choruses as Arne Vandenhoeck, Boris Iolis, and Kurt Blommé share vocal duties to create an otherworldly sense of harmony previously unheard by the band. If this song doesn’t immediately grab you and shake you to your very core, check your pulse, because you might be dead.

Arne’s vocals take the lead in “Palace of Broken Dreams” as the song focuses more heavily on his clean singing and are punctuated by gutturals as well as Boris’ exquisite bass work throughout the entire album. There’s a level of balance that Marche Funèbre have been working towards and hinted at on Einderlicht that has borne fruit here on After the Storm that I can only describe as the perfect union of death and doom metal. The album also rides the ebb and flow of melancholic doom and sullen death metal, as the somber tones of “Palace of Broken Dreams” give way to the smoldering fury of “Devoid of Empathy.” Lead guitarist Peter Egberghs shines throughout this entire album, accompanied in epic harmony by rhythm guitarist Kurt Blommé. And Dennis Lefebvre’s drumming is nothing short of perfection, maintaining the perfect amount of dynamic tension from beginning to end.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that this is Marche Funèbre’s shortest album to date. The six tracks clock in just short of 45 minutes, which almost feels like an EP from a band who, up till now, have consistently released albums hovering around the one hour mark. Nothing feels wasted, though, and the album certainly doesn’t feel shorter; if anything, it feels just as full and satisfying as their other records. “Enter Emptiness” feels like a slow march into battle against death itself. “Stranded” once again dances along the border of death and doom, finding that perfect harmony comes in the union of both while bathing in the respective excesses (and that closing riff that starts at 4:40 and takes this song to I don’t even know where is beyond even my realm of comprehension and on a completely different plane than mere “perfection”). And there really couldn’t be a better closing song than title track “After the Storm”. It’s a harmonious encapsulation of the past 15 years of a band who have only just begun to explore the intersection of death and doom metal.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Bands come and go. Some manage to keep their original lineup, and others have a more “revolving door” approach. And some bands find that perfect sound from the very beginning while others struggle to achieve some sense of identity. And you know what? That’s fine. Because the most important thing for any band to do is have fans for whom their music has meaning. The absolute hardest thing for any band to do is evolve, because all too often fans think their favorite band is indebted to them to make the music that they love. It’s important to remember that evolution is okay, because sometimes evolution brings us as close as we’ll ever get to perfection. And that may be what Marche Funèbre have achieved with After the Storm. I just hope you’re ready for it.