I had heard alot of good things about Funeral Mist, and when their vocalist joined Marduk as Legion's replacement, my curiosity grew. Well, I finally got ahold of their debut album, Devilry. And let me tell you...I was blown away. Throughout the nineties, Sweden's black metal scene was always kind of the red-headed stepchild to Norway's scene. With only a few standout quality bands (Dissection, Marduk, and to a lesser degree, Sacramentum), Norway got the share of the limelight. Funeral Mist is an excellent step in correcting this oversight. When you listen to this, you can tell it is Swedish. It has that slightly melodic, yet still sharp guitar sound that is common to bands like Dark Funeral, Setherial, and the aforementioned Marduk. But what Funeral Mist does here is unique. The vocals are inhuman, positively some of the best in BM. Arioch (Mortuus to all of you Marduk fans) has such a range, from black metal screeches, to deeper growls, to, at times, a guttural throaty gurgle that seems like it would be impossible to mimic. And the drumming is a plus too. Necromorbus (owner of the famed studio of the same name) is all over the map here, flourishing whenever possible. The reasons for this not being a 5 out of 5 are: the samples are too damn long (my biggest pet peeve in extreme metal), and the drum solo/flourish in "The God Supreme" kind of destroys the momentum of the whole song.
