Warspirit records is L.F.'s label based around Marseille in the South est of France and it is one of the best from my country for sure. They released later last year this pro made CDR compiling early material by his band KRISTALLNACHT when it was still known under the name FUNERAL. The first 3 songs are the "Black flame of unholy hate" demo from March of 1995, excellent black metal in the vein of BURZUM / DARKTHRONE / early DIMMU BORGIR with a low-fi production though (with Black Christ from BLESSED IN SIN on vocals). Then come the 3 titles played by FUNERAL on the split demo with OSCULUM INFAME originally recorded by Drakkar prods. The flaws presented by these recordings are the poor production and the horrible vocals on the first two tracks by Xaphan (also later on in SEIGNEUR VOLAND), as it sounds like a parody of Donald Duck's voice to be totally honest... Apart from that the keyboards were not as good as on KRISTALLNACHT's first demo named "Warspirit" but the music remains OK with a somber feeling and a depressive sound. The third song, however("Aryan blood") is sung by L.F. himself and it is a pure killer piece of black metal, ala BURZUM / DARKTHRONE / old MALIGNANT ETERNAL - terrific ! Also note the synth player on this part is the one of BLESSED IN SIN. Then you have 2 tracks that end the FUNERAL history, thyey were recorded in 1997 just before the band split up and then rose again under the name KRISTALLNACHT. The first one appeared on the split demo tape with the German band MORKE and would later on be on the "Warspirit" MCD , one more time the music is OK but the sound's quite poor. And the second one is the BURZUM cover ("lost wisdom") previously released on the KRISTALLNACHT promo/cassette EP from 2000 "Soldiers of triumphant sun". I would recommend this CDR to those of you who already know and like the southern French black metal style, and those who like underground black metal and who don't care unpolished sound. The others can walk their path.

8 / 10

© 2003 lord pesten