Contagion - Contagion (2009)

   Funereal with it's old line up in the early '90s as Contagion had a short but productive active period. This compilation album includes their 2 demos and an EP that shows well their musical progression.
   The first demo "Subconscious Projection" was kind of primitive and raw, like the usual first steps of a beginner old school death metal band. In one year their music went through an impressive development both in sound and themes. Even though it was only a demo, it's heaviness was quite effective, and they wrote longer songs with common speed swithings. In general they preferred middle speed, but they operated well with slow downs and fast hammering parts too. The EP was very close to the style that they've played as Funereal. It wasn't completely death/doom yet, but their heavy, slow themes have been more in focus than before. It was an excellent mix of noisy brutality and demoralizing slow downs, but still in the spirit of the early '90s death metal wave. The rough, unfriendly tone that they've developed was kind of unique even amongst the countless similar bands of the style that time. The album is everything but disappointing, and could serve as ejnoyable entertainment for the fans old school death metal.