weird fucking Belgians

I came across a lo-fi DIY drone/free folk/noise/improv collective called Funeral Folk. Hailing from Belgium, it seems these guys do nothing but drink those potent ales and make fucked up recordings. What initially grabbed my attention were the names of the bands, which were mostly all inspired by Norwegian black metal. There's Silvester Anfang,Chainsaw Gutsfuck, Per & Oystein, all inspired by Mayhem. Also Hellvete (meaning "hell" in Nordic tongues). And the name sure to strike fear into the hearts of the public The Death Penalty Roommates. I figured these guys had to have a killer sense of humor to put names like that on the music they were making, which is a good indication that they're not taking themselves too seriously. After listening to the sound clips available on the website ( www.funeralfolk.tk) I selected works by Edgar Wappenhalter and Chainsaw Gutsfuck. I got the tapes from Eclipse Records (www.eclipse-records.com) out of Arizona, I think the only distributor in the States for them right now. Apparently FoxyDigitalis has some CD-R releases planned for the future. I love the punk inspired artwork, completely hand cut-and-pasted and photocopied and folded up and jammed into the cases. The Wappenhalter artwork had images of what looked like holocaust survivors while Chainsaw Gutsfuck has piles of skulls and weird images pulled from old books. As far as the music goes, Wappenhalter lays down some dusty, creaky acoustic ramblings, augmented with bells and what sounds like bongos. I like to imagine it was recorded in a shack in some heavily forested European region, while frightened children dare to peek in through windows at the scary old hermit inside, or make their way past like protagonists from a cautionary fable. Reminds me somewhat of the darker Six Organs material. The Chainsaw Gutsfuck is a thundering, noisy mess of lo-fi guitars and throbbing primal percussion. This would be a great soundtrack for a Conan the Barbarian type movie as the heroes ride to their impending doom in battle against supernatural evil forces.