The epitome of misery, which feels like a daily visitor, isn’t always easy to get across when making music. Dour and doomy fury can be meted out with devastating (and quality) results without the true essence of the shadows sinking in. But you know when you hear something that digs beneath your ribcage.

Canadian duo Funelore (vocalist/bassist A.E., guitarist, synth player, drum programmer M.B.) mine the bottom of the barrel of misery and lather that over creaky horrors on “The Dissolution of Consciousness.” This, their first EP and release at all, feels like a horror-filled storm that aligns with the wretchedness inside our hearts and minds. It makes it a little easier to digest knowing these sounds can see the same madness as you.

“Tides in Agony” opens with waves crashing, keys opening, and a mauling pace taking over, the grounds swelling with power. The playing is murky and heavy, melodies tingling as the growls curdle, mystical winds melding with might. Calm pushes in as the keys drip, adding a gothic feel, and the playing lurches, the growls bubbling into a thick mist. The title track closes, entering a penetrating fog, guitars icing with a deep freeze, howls scraping at the earth. Slow, eerie playing clouds your brain, the playing smolders, and the guitars engulf, trudging harder as light beams cut to the surface. Colder guitars spread, dizzying as it sweeps up everything in front of it, melodies melting as the darkness takes over and pulls you entirely into the void.

Funelore’s “The Dissolution of Consciousness” is a foreboding, churning experience, an introduction into a sweltering world of doom that grows more populated by the second. They prove to have the tools and the misery to make a difference, and even though it’s two songs, they are mammoths with a lot of promise. This is a punishing, destructive first blast, and wherever they go from here is bound to be morbid.

For more on the band, go here: https://funelore.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.mesacounojo.com/shop/funelore-dissolution-of-consciousness-12/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.mesacounojo.com/