Metal Reviews

I’m not entirely sure whether I’ll often return to the gloomy Panngrieb or not, but I’m sure this magical journey is worth a try. However, I’m pretty sure that NARROW HOUSE’s next visits to the murky underground are very promising and something to look forward to.

ESOTERIC child (which also contains a title, "Beneath This Face" convincingly), this group practice a Funeral Doom very distinct in its statement, totally desperate, requiring slow and devoid of compromise. NARROW HOUSE is not intended to upset the rules fairly limited in this sub-genre: ultra slow tempo, towering riffs, mammoth and rhythmic throat singing.

The fourth and final track on this release, 'Behind the Mask This' is a great finale. By this point in the CD, I had broken down into tears twice because it was such an emotional roller coaster of sound.

On their own terms, Narrow House are the most accomplished new funeral doom band that I have heard in some time: They use the cello and keyboards beautifully to ease the flow from chord to chord in the riff, and the vocals have a fine tone to them.

Solitude Productions once again crosses our path with a mighty fine funeral doom album, this time from Ukraine. When looking at the cover of Narrow House’s ‘A Key To Panngrieb’ I am sure funeral doom is not something that will spring to mind. Pure funeral doom is really isn’t. It’s more psychedelic funeral doom such as we know it from bands such as Esoteric and Faal and in the quieter almost ambient passages of Shape Of Despair.

The album is big, open and spacious like the musicians are not even playing in the same country, let alone the same studio. There are huge gaps in every guitar strike, cymbal and drum hit which makes this seem much slower than what is actually is. They bleed out their music so listening to this is like being strangled to death very very slowly which is a killer hook and perfect for a funeral doom exercise.

It’s virtually flawless in structure, flow, composition, delivery, and production. Narrow House create such a gravitational force with their combination of suffocating heaviness, dreary phantom atmosphere, and solemn melodies that it’s damn near impossible to escape it’s pull into the abyss.

During these 45 minutes of funereal exile, the 'Russian school', let us say, comes in good shape, four themes touched very competent, well-structured, with a good balance between the keys and guitars and a well that throaty voice, sparsely, alternating with a clear tone and lean a little to the tortuous.

A very successful album that will delight fans of the genre and can be a good approach for those who do not yet know the genre.

The keyboards play also a major part in their music, the vocals are as versatile as they can be but still keeping a growling tone most of the time, the drums and bass lines really capitalize their importance and the excellent production allows all this to happen. So all in all Narrow House released a very good debut album, one that will certainly attract the interest of Funeral Doom followers out there.