With their third album Exequiae (Latin for “funeral rites”), Lone Wanderer from Freiburg im Breisgau/Germany makes a striking statement in the realm of Funeral Doom. The band’s High Roller debut continues the thematic line of its predecessor The Faustian Winter, from the end of Faustian culture to inner grief and existential despair.
Watch “Existence Nullified” (LYRIC VIDEO) HERE
“Thematically and musically, we’ve never been closer to the core of Funeral Doom than with these five songs,” explains songwriter and guitarist Bruno Schotten. The tracks, including the nearly 25-minute centerpiece ‘To Rest Eternally’, combine majestic slowness, dense harmonies, and overwhelming heaviness. “The extended length of this track wasn’t intentional, but a logical necessity of the theme.”
Musically, Exequiae marks a high point in the band’s development: “Despite extensive excursions into elaborate harmonies, a red thread runs through the album. Including some more death-doomy passages, it sounds darker and more cryptic than ever.” The artwork, in keeping with the quartet’s tradition, is by Romantic painter Ernst Ferdinand Oehme, whose ‘Procession in the Fog’ captures the album’s grave stillness.
“We oversaw every step of the production, from the first guitar note to the final mix. This album is completely our work,” Schotten emphasizes. Exequiae is a funeral mass in slow motion, majestic, despairing, uncompromising – and stands as the band’s most compelling statement to date, treating Funeral Doom as a true art form.
TRACK-LISTING:
01 Anhedonia’
02 Epistemology of the Passed
03 Existence Nullified
04 Life’s Lost Vanity
05 To Rest Eternally
LINE-UP:
Bruno Schotten – Vocals Guitar
Jonas Weber – Guitar
Simon Brooker – Bass
Jakob Zeblin – Drums
DISCOGRAPHY:
Principles (EP, 2014)
The Majesty of Loss (2016)
The Faustian Winter (2020)
Exequiae (2026)
ON-LINE:
https://www.facebook.com/lonewandererdoom
https://www.instagram.com/lonewandererdoom
https://lonewanderer.bandcamp.com/album/the-faustian-winter
https://www.hrrecords.de/
Source: High Roller Records
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