Today we have the privilege of sharing an early stream of “Ascension” the opening piece taken from ‘Diagenesis‘, the thirteenth full-length album from Erembodegem, Belgium-based funeral doom metal project UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME. Active since the late 90’s this key project from musician Stijn Van Cauter (The NULL Collective, Beyond Black Void, et al.) has long embodied its own realm between death, dreams and mourning wherein the borders between dark ambiance and funeral doom merge unto brilliantly dramatic cinema. For our purposes today we take on the opening track, “Ascension”, as part of a larger narrative dealing with the inheritance of grief via memoriam as the mourner in question is spoken to through a dream and tasked with preserving the memory of the dead. In terms of style we get an immediate sensation of classic funeral doom by way of volatile, disintegrating guitar progression and low-set growl amidst the ethereal glow of synth/keys. This particular combination speaks to the enduring patience and dramatism of the sub-genre, what I’d consider a “second gen” funeral doom ideation with themed atmospheric focus, and likewise emphasizes what is distinct about Van Cauter‘s work in this project as a whole. This is definitely a song (and an album) explicitly for folks who value both the tradition and expansion of funeral doom into personal, imaginative works.

The band comment on the song and the album’s themes:

“‘Ascension’ is the opening track from ‘Diagenesis’, an album exploring how bereavement can turn into overpowering guilt with the passing of time. In this track, the dead, as they exist in one’s mind, communicate for the last time with the living, offering words of compassion for the mourner. All that the dead were has been surrendered to whatever minds may remember them. The dead remind the living they’ve essentially entered a new form of existence, one where they’re made of dreams and memories, both insubstantial things which have the habit of fading out or losing detail. Like a figure walking backwards in the fog, the images of the dead sink deeper and deeper into the mind, to places from where only nebulous impressions emerge. The living are left with the difficult task of accepting this new reality.”

Thanks goes out to UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME, Aesthetic Death and their representation for the opportunity to share this song early. Scroll down to the YouTube embed below to finalize your descent… As always, please do your best to support the worldwide doom metal underground and grab a copy on CD and digitally this coming December 6th, 2024:

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Per the Press Release:

Enigmatic funeral doom entity UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME will release the new album “Diagenesis” on December 6th 2024 via Aesthetic Death.

White light died, aeons away from home. Reality is fundamentally altered. Mutilated, it lurches on, as if blind to what has gone missing, to what will never return.

UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME (UDOM for short), active since 1999, resides somewhere in the more murky reaches of the doom genre. Often called ambient funeral doom, UDOM’s sound is always undergoing subtle changes, and delivers introspective musical journeys to and through the darker and more tortured places of the human mind.

Since inception, UDOM has released 18 albums. The majority of these were self-released, targeting primarily digital-only platforms. “Diagenesis” is a culmination of inner torments which, having grown over the years, finally find a release through 4 lengthy tracks. Starting with a dream through which the dead communicate for the very last time, and from which the realisation is born that the act of remembering, preserving, lies wholly with the living. Realising the burden is subject to one’s own slow decay, guilt so powerful it seems only death can solve it, sets in. Yet that same death will not be avoided, and until then, we may dream. “Diagenesis” ends with a tribute to the dead of whom memories are fading, which ends up speaking more of the own despair, eventually faltering as it realises it will never reach those who can no longer hear.

“Diagenesis”. The final act of the dead. To become one with the surroundings whence they came, to become indistinguishable from the rest of reality, and effectively, to vanish as if they’d never existed. To leave the living despairing with the knowledge that no matter how deep they dig, in earth and mind, the dead shall never be found again.

Bereavement ravages the mind, and time promises to blunt its strength. A pale wasteland may recover one day, but the guilt that comes with fading memories takes root instead.
And here, time only strengthens it. As clear images become abstract dreams, guilt bears down with its growing, crippling mass.

The only ones to understand, who could ever forgive, have already gone ahead, and are those same ones fading out of view.

And when they’re truly gone, only death may forgive.

Tracklist:

1. Ascension
2. End’s Lure
3. White Light
4. For

UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME

https://udom.bandcamp.com/

https://nulll.net/udom/

Aesthetic Death

https://aestheticdeath.bandcamp.com/

https://www.aestheticdeath.com/

https://www.facebook.com/aestheticdeath.uk

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