After several weeks of relentless blast beats pounding against my eardrums, it was about time to grant this old body a moment of rest and ease off the throttle. But duty calls: reviews still need to be written, and albums must be heard.
To find some semblance of peace, I decided to descend into the world of Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin. The duo have finally delivered a successor to their 2020 collaborative album: Volume II. A transition, then, from scorching Black Metal blasts to the crushing, glacial Funeral Doom of Bell Witch, merged with the dreamy, psychedelic textures and almost spectral vocals of Aerial Ruin.
It feels like stepping out of a storm in an abandoned mineshaft and into a dark cathedral filled with echoes and whispers. A place where every note doesn’t occupy a second, but an eternity. The kind of musical stillness you don’t actively seek, yet inevitably find yourself swallowed by—and lingering in.
With four compositions and nearly an hour of music, ranging from slow-creeping Funeral Doom to ’70s-tinged psychedelic alt-folk, the album offers ample variation without ever becoming dull or overlong. The entire work drags itself forward like a reptile across a scorched desert—slow but purposeful—leaving a trail of sounds and warped echoes behind in the dust.
The undisputed highlight is the nineteen-minute monolith “The Told and the Leadened.” A spellbinding epic that unfurls at its own pace, carried by the magnificent voice of Erik Moggridge, slicing through the mist-laden atmosphere like a blade. It’s a track one does not simply listen to—it’s something to endure, a dark liturgy where every second weighs heavily.
The world of Funeral Doom remains an odd one: you either embrace it or despise it. It is music to be endured, not something you casually throw on while vacuuming the living room.
Volume II is a worthy successor to the first installment released five years ago—superior to its predecessor in several aspects.
85/100