Ephemeros: All Hail Corrosion (2013)

Hail the Funeral

Have I mentioned that funeral doom is a ridiculously easy genre to play, and a monumentally difficult genre to play well? Have I previously emphasized that you can’t just listen to a few minutes on Youtube (or Soundcloud or Bandcamp or whatever) and make a reasonable assessment of a funeral doom band? Good. With that in mind, let’s talk about Ephemeros.

All Hail Corrosion is the debut record from this Oregonian band, and it will be released August 20. You should consider purchasing it. It’s got all the tension and pure “heavy” that you need.


The title track begins the record with a melody of single notes with a lot of negative space. They’re eerie (and possibly a bit out of tune); it sounds like something Ahab would do. After a while, a deep death growl and heavy chord crush the silence, while the melody continues. The rest of the song continues its minimalism, slowly developing into a Loss-like melancholic lead, breaking into quiet with emphatic drum strikes and percussive guitar, and leading out with raspy vocals and a slight black metal-ness to the riff. There are two more songs (all three top 10 minutes), both mostly minimalistic, lurching, and slowly-evolving but in a different fashion. Closer “Soilbringer” has some slightly more elaborate drumming (slightly) and rather than changing along a single path it has a few call-backs.

All that detail isn’t really useful to you, though, is it? What you need to know is the record is heavy, melancholic, angry, slow, and tense, and they don’t drag anything out so long it becomes tiresome, as many others in the genre can do. It’s worth your time and money.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars