On November 12 of this year, Port Coquitlam’s local doom metal band Funeral Circle released their self-titled debut. Although they have a huge influence by none other than the amazing Candlemass hailing from Sweden, they still write their own music with a sound separate from any other epic doom metal band around.

The only way to really describe this album’s artwork is just heavy. Clean lines, beautifully portrayed, shading in all the right places, with their title still easy to read. Looking at the artwork already shows that it’s pure doom and metal at it’s finest.

With their first track, “Scion of Infinity”, it starts off with a heavy Solitude Aeternus kind of guitar riff, long, accentuated, including a heavy atmosphere even when the vocals start. When Adrian’s vocals come out, it’s almost like Reverend Bizarre but with a hint of Lord Vicar during the softer parts.

This album in it’s entirety is not only a doom metal classic in the making, but something that we can all appreciate even ten or more years down the road. These guys are definitely climbing very high up the doom metal ladder very quickly, making fans wherever they roam.

I’m really glad to see “Corpus of Dark Sorcery” on their album this year. I remember seeing it released a single for their newest album a few years back. Like the rest of this self titled debut, it’s but a masterpiece.

Each track throughout this album blends into each other, progressively becoming more and more mind-blowingly heavy. As quoted on shadowkingdomrecord’s website about this newest album, “MEGAHAWK DUANE II Some velvety, delicious oldskool doom shreddage with a hint of The Cult. This shit ain't a gem, it's a fuckin jeweled fist goin up yer' ass! An excellent slab of witchborn metal doom glory for all headbanging scumbags! Favorite track: Black Colossus.”

It couldn’t have been said any better than that.