Funeral Doom is a harder genre to get right than many others in Metal. It takes a strong sense for tension and mood that itself requires more dedication and care to make than you might think, certainly more than those who fail at it put in. Thankfully, Raffaele Galasso of Italian one-man act Shamael came out the gate and proved he was worthy to wield the mantle of doom with his debut, Melancholie Der Engel. Musically, this delves in that grim, murky vein of the style along the lines of Skepticism and Thergothon, evoking desperation greater than a priest begging Jesus to save him from unholy beats, darkness more sinister than the bottom of a well filled with the souls of the lost and damned, and emotional desolation and despair akin to reading my overwrought metaphors (hurts me to write them, anyway). There's not much more to say about this release, but Funeral Doom as a genre is simple in concept and difficult in execution, and Shamael is as dark and defiantly anti-commercial as any in the style. Definitely worth checking out.