Tetramorphe Impure – Sunset of Being

Pegah

Tetramorphe Impure is a one-man Funeral Doom/Death Metal act based in northern Italy, led by multi-instrumentalist Damien. Originally formed in 2006 as a trio, the project eventually became Damien’s personal outlet. Musically, Tetramorphe Impure blends the crushing heaviness of Funeral Doom with the raw force of Old-School Death Metal and the somber textures of early Doom-Death. After a long period rooted in the underground scene, the project finally unveiled its first full-length album, The Sunset of Being.

The album title, Sunset of Being, carries a poetic resonance, likening existence to the sun, a timeless emblem of life, vitality, and power. In this metaphor, being is not extinguished abruptly, but wanes slowly and inevitably. The cover art, on the other hand, evokes the style of a Neoclassical and Romantic-era oil painting, with its dramatic use of light and shadow, and a profound sense of the sublime. The billowing, fiery cloud at the center could be read as a sun in collapse, a symbol of dissolution and cosmic reckoning. Trees stand like mourners and witnesses on the edges of a vanishing world, their twisted forms seemingly resigned to nature’s slow unraveling. The artwork’s visual aesthetic perfectly complements the album’s Funeral Doom atmosphere, reinforcing its themes of decay, isolation, and the poetic inevitability of death.

The album opens with “Forsaken Light”, an atmospheric passage that conjures the eerie stillness of a shadowed forest at dusk. Then, a female voice emerges, her haunting tones floating like mist through the trees, entwined with ghostly whispers. As the guitar slowly enters the frame, it marks the beginning of the album’s descent into existential lament. Throughout the track, Tetramorphe Impure masterfully navigates between extremes, weaving a narrative that rises and falls like a storm-battered tide. From the slow, crushing weight of Funeral Doom — with its steady, suffocating soundscapes — the music surges unexpectedly into bursts of Death Metal aggression. “Night Chants” picks up the somber thread woven by the opening track, continuing the oppressive Doom-laden atmosphere with slow, deliberate pacing and brooding instrumentation. As the song unfolds, however, the landscape shifts — the steady Funeral Dirge gives way to a sudden burst of pure Death Metal ferocity. The rhythm accelerates, and guitars take on a sharper edge. Yet this transformation is brief and intentional, never straying too far from the album’s overarching aesthetic.

This approach continues throughout the subsequent tracks. “Spirit of Gravity” maintains the somber, Doom-infused atmosphere established earlier but once again introduces fleeting moments of urgency and aggression. The closing track, “Sunset of Being”, echoes the album’s central theme: a reflective meditation on the end of being. However, it begins with a burst of rhythm, which, rather than disrupting the flow, serves as a contrast — a dark flare within a larger, mournful descent — reinforcing the emotional complexity of the piece without sacrificing cohesion. The composition lingers in that liminal space between despair and violence, echoing the gravitational pull of existential collapse.

These moments of speed and ferocity throughout the album jolt the listener from their meditative descent, introducing chaos and urgency into the otherwise mournful flow. For me, someone who doesn’t usually connect with the fast pace of Death Metal, these changes were very timely and appropriate. While I enjoyed the stillness and calm of Funeral Doom, the increase in speed throughout various parts of the album was perfectly placed, helping to convey the intensity of personal struggles, feelings of protest, rebellion, and power. This careful modulation gives the album its momentum: a slow spiral downward, where each track feels like a deeper layer being peeled back from the soul.

Label: Aesthetic Death

Release date: April 18, 2025

Website: https://aestheticdeath.bandcamp.com/album/the-sunset-of-being

Country: Italy

Score: 4.5/5.0