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For complete review, visit Untombed.com
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It’s been a few years since we had a release from the dark metal band Endless Funeral. But with the
release of “Dawn of Rebirth”, we can see that they’re back. Martin Pleau is joined by Unforsaken’s
Thomas Wilson. Jon Hooper, who was on the previous Endless Funeral album “A Second Beginning” and makes
up Unforsaken along with Thomas, is still involved with this album – providing some pre-production work
as well as the flaming phoenix artwork.
Overall, this is a great release from Endless Funeral. Both Martin and Thomas have done a great job. The music is a nice mix of straight-ahead, guitar-driven metal as well as melodic dark metal. A great release indeed. 8.5 out of 10 Review by Jeffery de los Santos www.untombed.com
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| Jump to: | "Dawn Of Rebirth" | "A Second Beginning" |
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Endless Funeral was formed in 2003 as a one man project, and in 2005, with the addition of a second
member, they started recording material that became their debut in 2006.
Their music can be described as a combination of epic sounds from bands like Doomsword, Veni Domine, and While Heaven Wept, with the atmosphere of My Dying Bride, Novembers Doom, and the modern touch of non-doom bands such as Nightwish and Children of Bodom (something that they willingly admit). The material of the demo sounds majestic, warm, and passionate. Highlights of the album are 'If Only Eyes Could See' and 'The End of Suffering' in my opinion, but the rest of the songs are very close in their standards. If you like the bands that I mentioned above, you’re gonna love this album... The only thing that I didn't like was the use of programmed drums which steals something away from the final outcome. Review by Dimitris Plastiras Doom-Metal.com
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Endless Funeral is a cool one man band from Canada that mixes black metal vocals with catchy melodic 80s
Metal! I also like that Martin Pleau uses plenty of variation in the tunes. Guitar solos also totally
rule on this release and I really enjoy the Christ-centered lyrics. On the negative side it sounds like
he uses a drum machine and that's always a minus in my ears.
All in all a pleasant surprise and an EP that really really gives good promise for the future. Really cool release recommended to anyone that appreciates black metal vocals and 80s metal and want to hear something new and fresh. Review by Johannes Jonsson MetalForJesus.org
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For complete review, visit Metal-Observer.com
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For complete review, visit WhiteMetal.it
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One of the equally interesting and challenging things about “The Metal Observer” are bands you have never
heard about and hardly receive any information on (and usually they make it really hard to find anything
on them online as well)... And ENDLESS FUNERAL squarely falls into this category, as the unadorned CD-R
with black marker does not yield much more information than their name, and also research on the
internet proved to be rather scarce.
The only things I could find out were: The band consists of two musicians, namely Martin Pleau and Jon Hooper, apparently hailing from Quebec’s Gatineau area, explaining the band name as follows: “Endless Funeral means dying to self each day for Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean to die physically daily but as in a spiritual way. It is basically to put our desires aside in order to please God.” And I also could find their musical influences: ANTESTOR, LIVING SACRIFICE, EXTOL, SLECHTVALK, IMMORTAL SOULS, NARNIA, CHRIS PUSEY, RANDOM EYES, VAAKEVANDRING, HARMONY, DARK TRANQUILLITY, NIGHTWISH, SOUL EMBRACED, BALANCE OF POWER, DREAM THEATER, some Classical music, LINKIN PARK, EPICA. So a quite eclectic mix. And upon listening to “A Second Beginning” ENDLESS FUNERAL doesn’t make it easy to describe, as they try their best to not be pinpointed down that easily. We are treated to double-bass, soaring Power Metal drums, Death Metal vocals, symphonic touches, whispered voices, piano and more, so what do you call this? For one – interesting, and then also good, because Martin, who seems to be the mastermind behind this, seems to be a very accomplished songwriter indeed. “Renewal By Death”, for example, starts out quietly, but then sets out on a straight rhythm all the way to double-bass and some great Power Metal-like riffs and drum patterns, I like this! “The End Of Suffering” also has an outstanding element, that being the piano, which is embedded into a dynamic and variable song, taking on the lead role more than once, which we do not get often, even less so with such quality! And also the surrounding songs live up to this, some faster and melodic, such as “The Sirens' Call” or very atmospheric (“A Second Beginning”), Now one thing I have to mention are the lyrics... Yes, they are Christian; no, I don’t have problems with these kinds of topics, but I really hope that some of the stuff they compute here are meant ironically, because those are pretty extreme and over the top at times, so the word is out on those... Anyway, “A Second Beginning” is a highly interesting EP that should actually appeal to a quite wide spectrum of listeners. I think I will try to dig a little deeper and see what this is all about. With a bit more maturing and ripening, ENDLESS FUNERAL could develop into an interesting force here in Canada and abroad! Review by Alex Melzer Metal-Observer.com
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This review has been translated from Italian text. Where literal translation proved unclear, we have attempted to edit the text for clarity while trying to maintain the original intent of the reviewer. To read the review in its original and complete form, visit WhiteMetal.it The Review: Martin Pleau has succeeded. Finally, the young Canadian musician has his dream of turning out a true metal album with all the trappings, with the help of Jon Hooper who has joined on the drum machine programming and participating in some sections of rhythm guitar. Compared to the previous demos "The Eternal" and "Darkened Horizons", the music changes completely, both literally and metaphorically. Here we have left the black metal sound for a successful and well blended melting pot of heavy / power / gothic metal sung in a fascinating screaming whisper, which makes "A Second Beginning" the closest white album (conceptually at least, if not in sound) to the style of Children Of Bodom that I have ever heard, perhaps along with the beginnings of Immortal Souls. "A Second Beginning" contains seven tracks for just 27 minutes, but is all powerful, intense, inspired, exciting, angry, and technical, with varied songwriting, and extremely well packaged by surprisingly professional production... "You must die to live / You must be reborn". These words open "Renewal By Death", the prologue to the album's overall concept of the "second birth": we all have to die to ourselves, to our ego and pride, to be regenerated to the true life in Christ ("A second beginning / Through Your purifying grace / A second beginning / Reborn through Your love"). In "The Sirens' Call", Martin analyzes the consequences of sin, which often result from the deceptive seduction of "sirens". This concept is reinforced in "If Only Eyes Could See" with the quotation of scripture, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". The album ends with clear references to the New Testament: "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the World, but that the world through Him might be saved. / He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Beautiful concept, but also beautiful metal. Review by Vaake WhiteMetal.it
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