funeral for dreams - Collapsus vitae

Released: September 4

Dark and haunting drones with elements of decay and distortion are the order of the day on Houston-based funeral for dream’s latest effort, Collapsus vitae. The theme or story behind the album is that dread-soaking feeling of watching the world around us slowly (or quickly) fall to ruin with the title translating to “collapse of life” and the sonic characteristics of the work fleshing out that theme well. Despite being only three track and roughly 20 minutes long, Collapsus vitae comes across as stretched out and scathing, playing out slowly like sandpaper being dragged across your skin in an impossibly slow but also smooth motion. The first of the three tracks, “Atlas cecidit,” opens up this dying world with drawn out drones that seem to slowly decay in markedly digital ways, faltering and failing subtly at first but then with greater intensity. 

The second track serves as a shorter bridge between the two main tracks, representing a sort of hellish storm (“Infernus procellae”) that presents itself in the wake of a world now fallen. It has that same sense of subtlety that the album began with, riding slowly ebbing waves of distorted drones that wash fire over everything. But my favorite part comes with the final piece, “Aeternum vacuum,” a piece that comes across as airy and sparse with those lingering elements of fire and destruction present as well. For the most part the track is incredibly minimalist, relying on a single soft drone at the center that signals a sort of stasis that is now forever and devoid of life. But around that is the distortion soaked equivalent that still menaces a sense of destruction, even though it has already taken everything. It a solemn ending, but one that represents the logical conclusion of wanton destruction carried on without concern for the inevitable results.