Funus - Onen svet (2022)
by Tom/EZR
So here I am sitting on my sofa on Wednesday evening, tired of all the bullshit I went through this week, sipping beer from half empty bottle, stomach gas leaving my body from both ends and listening to the latest release by Bratislava OSDM quintet Funus – Onen svet (EP, 2022). Funus (translates as Funeral but also the name of the legendary beer garden in Bratislava) is quite a new band with 2 releases, Demo from 2020 and recent sophomore EP Onen svet (translates as The Other World). The reason why I decided to review this band is quite simple – first of all, Flork has been busy celebrating Valentine’s day with mrs. Flork leaving no spare time for reviews and as the deadline for a weekly selection is tomorrow morning, I am called to arms (by myself) as an unworthy stand-in. Now my usual approach for when Flork is too busy, is to review shorter material because I believe that reviewing longer albums deserves more attention – so I am grateful for EPs, demos and singles. Honestly, Funus was the first idea that came to my mind after Flork shared the news at 5pm and the reason is simple, OSDM is yet another revivalist genre in extreme music that has got a lot of exposure and attention recently and Funus is one of the few local bands that are taking this return to the roots quite seriously.
As I stated above, Funus is a quintet – 5 guys and an interesting mix of characters. Apart from Roxor (vocals), Magnus (guitar) and Šuhaj (drums) there are Tereza (bass, ex. Beton and also curr. 2 Manky Hookers and a Racist Dwarf) and Garlandus (guitar, also curr. Sperm of Mankind). I mean, bringing people from grind/HC scene to an OSDM band is cool as how can you actually make something old-school sound interesting without bringing influences from other extreme sub-genres? My view is that local scene is still quite conservative, people like to stay in their comfort zones, not too much sub-genre and sub-culture mixing is happening (with the exception of few examples) – especially in traditional extreme music genres like death/thrash/black so witnessing this is very positive. But maybe it’s just me being too smart after finishing second bottle of Pilsner Urquell (blessed be Josef Groll, holy archangel of heavenly brew).
But enough speculations and beertalk, let’s take a look at Onen svet – a four songs EP of length between 14-15 mintues. It starts with opening track “Hurikán na Vatikán” (Hurricane at the Vatican) which is a mid-tempo death metal stomper track with early 90’s alike juicy riffing and layered growl vocals. It’s a 3,5 minute song strongly reminiscing Krabathor’s Only Our Death Is Welcome era. The second track “Bažina” (Swamp) opens with a riff which is the homage to Cannibal Corpse’s song from Butchered at Birth album, Under the rotted flesh. I am not sure if this is intentional or not but I am immediately taken 30 years back to times when Chris Barnes and his band moved limits of extreme a few kilometers further and I am not complaining. Third beer … and third song “Lykan” (Lycan) which combines several elements that I enjoy about death metal – groovy mid-tempo riffs which were introduced in death metal by US Six Feet Under on their debut Haunted and disturbing wailing of guitars that I first captured on Immolation’s Dawn of possession. An ingrediency which makes this soup interesting is Roxor’s phrasing which is very punctual and reminds me in the best possible sense song Jáma pekel by Master’s Hammer. Fourth song “Onen svet” (The Other World) is the continuation of all elements captured before (with song name referencing another cult track by Master’s Hammer) with a nice guitar hook that adds that emotion which connects you with the world beyond.
The EP ends and I am thinking about all the references that I’ve made – am I too old (too cold) that everything reminds me of something? Is it OK to make so many references in a review or not? Then I am thinking, most of extreme music that I listen to today is revivalist and retro, simply people paying respect to older generations of musicians and genre defining albums that were written in late 80’s / early 90’s (which for me was the best period for new music) … hell even the name of the genre is Old School Death Metal, it’s “old school” – it’s supposed to remind you of something old. I don’t feel guilty, just on contrary – I feel nostalgic, this EP takes me back to times when I was an absolute fanatic for all extreme and sick. I am grateful that bands like Funus exist and that they keep the legacy alive.
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