Funeral In Heaven

In other countries, rituals and magical arts might have exercised sometimes considerable influence and even commanded many devoted votaries, but in Sri Lanka they were - and are - molded into a regular religion, arranged and methodized into an elaborate system, and even carefully preserved through the ages.

Funeral in Heaven is nothing more than a congregation of a few concerned and ardent individuals belonging to one of the few remaining, cautiously orchestrated systems of the dark arts in Sri Lanka...

Metal Mayhem: Thanks for answering a few of our questions. Can you please introduce yourself and the rest of the band for those that are unfamiliar?
Chathuranga: Funeral In Heaven is a project who belongs to a certain bastard child subgenre best described as Experimental Black Metal. And we hail from the pits of Sri Lanka.

MM: You’ve described your style as Sri Lankan “Hela” Black Metal ...Can you tell us what this is all about and what can people expect?
Chathuranga: Hela Black Metal was invented because simply our direction of music did not seem to fit any other genre description. This is because we tend to incorporate certain traditional instruments and certain ancient Sri Lankan aesthetic values which we incorporate into our dirge of Black Metal. I sincerely hope that the above description doesnt depict Funeral In Heaven as a “folk metal” band, because that’s certainly the last thing we want to happen.

MM: What are your main lyrical themes?
Chathuranga: Sri Lankan demology, History, War



MM: Sri Lanka is not the first country that comes to mind when you hear the term Black Metal. What is the Black Metal, and indeed the Metal scene in general like over in Sri Lanka?
Chathuranga: Black Metal art dominates Sri Lanka considering the bands that are currently active within the Metal scene. We have great bands such as the godfathers of SLBM, Siblings of Hatred, comrades from Forlorn Hope, Pariah Demise, Necro Horde, Dhishti, Unholy Sermon, etc. But as a whole, leaving out a couple of mainstream sell out scum, we are a very closely knit scene. It has changed very much at the present however considering how it was when we started out. As more and more international artists are taking notice of this island and have started touring here. But the only thing ALL the bands are missing in general is mainly good equipment and a good sound/recording engineer. Which is why, despite the age of existence when it comes to most of these bands, you wont find much recorded material on the internet. And secondly, good venues because most of the club owners here arent willing to work with a Metal band, and the ones who are, are way out of our budget. For someone new to Lankan Metal, I suggest they take a listen to bands such as Hollow, Paranoid Earthling, Plecto Aliquem Capite, Spleen Saint, Forsaken, Old Castles Massacre, Fallen Grace, Mass Damnation and Serpents Athirst.

MM: Who are your main influences as a band?
Chathuranga: Collectively we’re influenced by different sources all together. May it be history, demonology, philosophers, music. Musically wise we’re not only massively influenced by artists such as Venom, Immortal, Blasphemy, Archgoat and Absu but we also hold Indian/Sri Lankan classical artists such as Jagjit Singh, Gunadasa Kapuge, Premasiri Khemadasa, Zakit Hussain of paramount importance to this project.

MM: You’ve released a couple of EP’s now, are there any signs of a full debut album on the horizon?
Chathuranga: We have been trying to do this since 2/3 years back. But with the above mentioned lack of equipment, etc, we have found it to be quite hectic. BUT, we have finally gathered almost everything we will need for this record and plan to hit the studio right after our Indian tour at Deccan Rock Festival.



MM: Speaking of the EP’s, you released “Shaanthikarma” as a free Digital Download. Where can our readers get this from, and what were your main reasons for releasing it for free?
Chathuranga: Shaanthikarma was a live EP recorded by a couple of friends at AWN Radio, and until they handed over the recordings to us and my drummer (who also handles production duties for our recordings) started messing around with mastering it a tad. We within a couple of days after receiving it, decided to release it as a sign of massive respect and gratitude to everyone who attended and took part in organizing the event the performance was recorded at. We were’nt really concerned with looking for a label to release it physically so I asked my friend Nick Skog from Hypnotic Dirge Records to host the release for us, and so he did. The EP is available on the official HDR web space and a few other blogspot websites.

MM: I’ve seen that you’ve played quite extensively in a few countries now. Can you tell us a bit about a few of your favorite shows and which one has stood out in particular?
Chathuranga: The Thailand gig (In League with the Legion of Death) we played last year was a great success, and since Thailand being one of my favorite countries to visit, we had a great time there. Brother Shaxul from Legion of Death records got us this show as his band was touring in the area. The show was put togther my comrade Whathayakorn of Surrender of Divinity and we played this show with Manzer from France, Goatchrist666, Zygoatsis, Orator our comrades from Bangladesh and most importantly the most evil band from Japan, the legendary Abigail! Great food, beautiful Thai girls and the non stop consumption of Alcohol lead to a fucking great time.

MM: How about your worst show…any funny stories?
Chathuranga: Its the sound issues that contribute to a bad show for us mostly, as most engineers aren’t used to our setting of the extra band member with the traditional instruments such as Thabla and Violin. So everything else, we tend to look at from a positive angle and just take it as it comes.

MM: ...and finally, is there anything you hope to achieve in 2011?
Chathuranga: Mainly we intend to tour more out of Sri Lanka and get on with the way over due recording of the debut album. We are also releasing a split 12” LP with Sri Lanka’s Plecto Aliquem Capite in a few months titled “Astral Mantras of Dyslexia” on Germany’s Dunkelheit Productionen.

MM: Thanks again, any last words for our readers?
Chathuranga: Thanks for taking the time to prepare these questions Chris, and tantric hails to all who have supported this abomination. We can be contacted on funeralinheaven@hotmail.com and our official Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/funeralinheaven.

Interview by Chris Rogers