Genre: Funeral Doom / Death Metal

01 Alone
02 So Long
03 Words of Silence
04 Suffer in Darkness
05 Ghosts of Devotion
06 The Sun is Dead
07 Fallen Angel
08 Dunkelheit (Burzum Cover)
09 Cold

Ghosts of Devotion is the exact reason that I think bands shouldn't be allowed to label themselves with genre specifics.  One looks to any number of webpages involving Depressed Mode and sees the phrase "funeral doom" posted everywhere involving the band.  While there are many funeral doom qualities surrounding the guitar and drum work throughout this album, truthfully, this is just not funeral doom.  The album is fantastic, truely, and I will get to that in a minute.  But it must be understood that Depressed Mode is a very keyboard melody-based gothic doom act with death styled vocals.  The music isn't nearly slow enough nor minimal enough to be considered part of this fantastic genre.

Ghosts of Devotion is atmosphereic and melodic in its very nature.  The music is incredibly similar to Finland gothic doom overlords Swallow the Sun.  The style that makes Depressed Mode stand out beyond the other gothic doomers though involved two aspects that are used in similar aspects of the genre, but haven't been combined with funeral doom quite like this before.  The first aspect is the moving keyboard melodies.  While not many funeral doom bands use such flowing melodies in their music, there is good reason:  It is exactly what keeps this album from being considered funeral doom (besides the speed aspect, anyway).  With too much ear candy and atmosphere, the music loses its funeral simplicities.  One can't say this is a bad thing as its actually a great touch and brings the music to another level. 

The other side of Ghosts of Devotion that gives it an interesting appeal is the usage of haunting female vocal interchanges with the deathened vocals.  Natalie Koskinen does a fantastic job, as is to be expected from a vocalist who is also affiliated with such devoted funeral doom acts as Raven (R.I.P.) and Shape of Despair.  Her vocals are otherworlds, almost ethereal, giving the music a feeling of crossing through plains of existence, rather than the one dimensional sounds often affiliated with the genre. 

This release has enough semblance to the funeral doom genre to be of use to any funeral doom die-hard fan.  Any melodic doom fan would also find this of interest, so in reality any DOOM fans at all should really get their hands on this release.  Ghosts of Devotion is certainly one of the more beautiful pieces to come across my desk in the past months, and if Firedoom/Firebox records keeps this up, they're going to be a regular powerhouse in the industry in no time at all.