Album Review: Tramalizer – Fumes Of Funeral Pyres
Reviewed by Dan Phipps
Finnish band Tramalizer are a fairly new band and you would not be judged too harshly for not being familiar with the name. The band who were formed during the pandemic in 2021 in Pieksämäki by guitar player M. Jokelainen and bassist T. Oranen. After a demo which was followed by a single paying tribute to late Entombed frontman L.G. Petrov the Finnish band have prepared a full length debut Fumes of Funeral Pyres, an album which showcases death metal in its most primitive fashion.
Scandinavian death metal is well renowned for its huge guitar sound and Tramalizer are no exception to the rule. As the album opens the guitars are the first thing you notice. They are big, bold and sound like a chainsaw revving up, getting ready for action. What really struck me about Tramalizers playing is just how tight the rhythm guitars have come out all throughout the album. The composition of the riffs themselves are not overkill in terms of how technical they sound, they are just solid death metal riffs with a hint of thrash at points along with a more power metal sounding influence at points a little later in the record. This I must admit was very unexpected but not unwelcome which slightly surprised me as I'm not a power metal fan at all if I'm honest but this worked. I also got a slightly punk vibe within the early stages of the album, probably more in feeling than actual sound but I could hear that energy within the writing.
Where Fumes of Funeral Pyres picks up its technical licks is with the lead guitar work which is placed superbly through the album. It is again extremely well executed; it has got the right amount of flash to stand out and be noticed without taking the songs over and just becoming flashy for the sake of it without adding to the song. The vocals are another very bright part of the record. They powerfully move through each song, they are not necessarily straight up death metal sounding, yes they have that deep growling sound and yet the pronunciation of the lyrics is audible so with songs like “Hating God” and “Fumes of Funeral Pyres” when your wanted to understand what is being said you can hear it loud and clear. The drums on the record again are very much what you would expect from a traditional death metal release. Obviously the modern death metal styling is more focused on furious blast beats which add that extra layer of intensity. Tramalizer get that extra intensity from the punk energy alluded to earlier, the drums are just like the guitars, extremely solid and played superbly throughout.
Tramalizer were formed in order to showcase death metal in its most honest format. Fumes of Funeral Pyres is a true and honest piece of old school death metal and it sounds fresh which is ever so important when looking to produce that classic old school sound. When a style has been flavour of the month for a while like OSDM has been in the death metal scene it tends to lose its energy Tramailizer have ensured that's not the case on this record.
