THERGOTHON - STREAM FROM THE HEAVENS
Whether or not this is truly the first funeral doom album, it's definitely the one that popularized the genre, with many bands building off the archetypal sound on display here. This is definitely an album you want to treat kind of like ambient music. While some later releases in the style, like those of Skepticism, would take a much more abrasive approach, Thergothon's guitars are too awash in reverb and couched in spooky synths to really be all that visceral. Though part of the point is to be monotonous, rays of sunshine occasionally penetrate the band's sour funk in the form of folk instrumentation. When it appears it's a nice pallette cleanser, and makes this release probably a good way to get into funeral doom, since it's only 40 minutes long.
What the band is doing here is creating a depressive and mournful atmosphere, and I think they do a great job. The vocals sit at a low rumble and the guitars periodically wash over you, dragging you straight to hell (check the backtracked vocals that appear a few times). It's a good recording to get lost in, listening to the bizarre, surreal tone and appropriately low barrier to entry synth melodies. And it is very dark and heavy, but not by way of blunt force. Oh by the way, no, this isn't even a little bit catchy either.
Despondent, lethargic, and full of despair. It's music to have a bad time to. This was kind of the next step, I think, from Winter's into darkness. Soon, however, the influence of this band would push death metal into even slower, more catatonic directions. Skepticism developed this bands brutality, while Esoteric cached in on its psychedelic powers. Still, this is worth a try in its own right. It really isn't all that inaccessible.
Put this on to slowly die and ROT.