Marche Funèbre releases After The Storm

I stand beneath the open sky, at the setting of the sun. The still waters stretch before me to the distant horizon and the clouds drift slowly across the vast canvas of the sky – a brilliant blending of deepest blues, rich purples, vivid red and warm orange. Yet for all the open vista, the space and freedom, I am trapped; suffocating in a labyrinth of black desperation. The cold walls of insurmountable sorrows and confusion contain me and I am imprisoned by past scars that have become infected, poisoned by the cruel, slow venoms of grief, loss and guilt. I built this maze, but I have long since forgotten the way to freedom...

“Tainted by miasma, corrupting your heart

Born from old pain, disrupted by taint

In a haze you locked your heart...”

- In A Haze – Marche Funèbre

Fifteen years since the release of their debut EP, Norizon, Belgium’s monarchs of morose majesty, Marche Funèbre, are set to unveil their fifth full length album – After The Storm. Each release from this special band has seen them refining their art, becoming ever more adept at delivering crushing heaviness married to wonderful melodies that resonate within the empty chambers of a broken heart...and After The Storm continues that continual upward trajectory, claiming its place at the peak of their recordings with ease. Right from the opening track and first single, ‘In A Haze’ it is abundantly clear that After The Storm is so much more than ‘just another album’. The powerful production, mix and master from Martin Furia (Destruction, Nervosa, Toxik etc) is absolute perfection, so alive and vibrant that you can almost hear the hum of the amps and feel the floor shake with each thunderous crack of the snare. This sonic quality combined with truly impassioned performances and staggering song writing makes for a doom/death listening experience to be treasured. It’s difficult to select individual highlights from an album whose songs flow together like a river, on a seamless journey to the sea, all different but all inextricably linked. However ‘Stranded’, with its magnificent chorus is simply unforgettable, as is ‘Palace Of Broken Dreams’, which manages to capture the spirit of its evocative title so beautifully with deftly handled juxtapositions of mellow melancholy and thunderous emotion. But then the next time you listen it may be the circling guitar motifs of ‘Devoid Of Empathy’, like spreading ripples upon the waters of a drowning pool, that enthral, or the sweeping tides of sorrow and pain of regret of ‘After The Storm’ itself... On rare occasions a band may capture their true essence in an album, everything that is great about their unique character – After The Storm is one of those albums.

Following the recording sessions for After The Storm, longstanding guitarist Peter Egberghs stepped down from the Marche Funèbre ranks, to be replaced by Fré De Schepper - and there could be no better album to begin the next chapter in the story of Marche Funèbre. Set for release on September 27th through Ardua Music, adorned in a stunning piece of cover artwork from Brooke Shaden, whose distinctive images have graced all of Marche Funèbre’s full length albums, After The Storm will be one of the doom/death metal releases of the year.