Abysmal Growls of Despair Confronts Cancer and Grief on Funeral Doom Album Torn
Aimeric Lerat Brings Trombones, Tubas and 8-String Weight to His WormHoleDeath Debut
Trombones and tubas almost never lead a doom metal record. Yet they carry the weight on Torn, the new album from Abysmal Growls of Despair. Out now through WormHoleDeath Records, the album sets brass-led funeral doom against the hardest of subjects. It follows a husband caring for his wife as she fights cancer. This is not a record you put on in the background. It is one you enter, and it stays with you after the last note fades.
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Abysmal Growls of Despair Steps Up to WormHoleDeath Records
Abysmal Growls of Despair is the solo project of French musician Aimeric Lerat. He has recorded under the name since 2013. Across that decade he has moved between ritualistic dark ambient, drone, and funeral doom, circling grief, despair, and spirituality. Torn is a clear step up. It is his first album for WormHoleDeath Records, after years of self-released work on Bandcamp. The signing was picked up by metal outlets including Metal Shock Finland and FrontView Magazine.
Lerat has also been open about his own mental health. He names his experience of schizophrenia as a lasting source of inspiration. That candour shapes the project. It is why Torn stays inside difficult feelings rather than rushing to resolve them, and why its weight never reads as a pose.
How Brass and 8-String Guitars Shape the Sound of Torn
Musically, Torn is funeral doom at its slowest and heaviest. Ritualistic dark ambient and drone run underneath. Crushing 8-string guitars hold the bottom end while a guttural voice presses down on every bar. The real surprise is the brass. Trombones and tubas carry the leads, lending a solemn grandeur closer to a requiem than a metal riff. That one choice pulls Torn away from standard doom. Its slow procession turns ceremonial, almost liturgical.
It is a patient album, built on long sustained tones and space rather than speed. Riffs arrive slowly and ring out, so silence becomes part of the music. The genre already prizes endurance, and Torn pushes that further. It trusts the listener to sit with each passage as it unfolds.
A Husband’s Cancer Vigil, Set to Slow and Heavy Funeral Doom
The subject at the centre of Torn is direct and devastating: a husband caring for his wife as she battles cancer. The album does not soften that into vague sorrow. It treats the experience as a testament to love and resilience, holding the fear and the devotion together. Most records avoid this kind of story. The slow, heavy form of funeral doom turns out to be the right vessel for it.
The album is a genuine collaboration. Lerat writes and performs the music. Jorg Puschmann supplies the lyrics, and Patrick Corcoran created the artwork, so words and images carry the weight of the sound. Four tracks shape the arc: Prologue to Agony, Growth, Mourning Has Broken, and the title track Torn. In sequence, the titles trace a vigil, moving from dread through endurance toward a hard-won acceptance.
“This album is a journey through profound personal struggle and unwavering devotion,” says Aimeric Lerat. “Working on Torn has allowed me to channel intense emotions into a sound that I hope resonates deeply with anyone who has faced loss, grief, or the challenges of illness.”
Who Torn Is For, From Doom Diehards to the Grieving
This is music for listeners who already live inside extreme metal, funeral doom in particular. Spend time with the glacial pacing of Funeral Moth, the despair-soaked French doom of Ataraxie, or the amplifier worship of SUNN O))), and Torn speaks the same language. It works in long sustained tones, immense low-end pressure, and patience. Where SUNN O))) lean almost entirely on drone, Abysmal Growls of Despair runs melody through the murk with brass. The heaviness reads as mourning rather than abstraction.
The album also reaches past the metal audience. It takes the experience of caring for a seriously ill partner and gives it shape. Anyone who has sat in a hospital corridor, or carried a loved one through treatment, will find something here. For those listeners it offers recognition rather than escape, which is rarer and more useful than easy comfort.
From the IndieMusic.News curator team: “The brass is what stays with us. Trombones and tubas turn funeral doom into something close to a memorial service, and that one decision carries the album’s grief more honestly than any growl could on its own.”
Where to Stream and Buy Torn by Abysmal Growls of Despair
Torn is out now across the major platforms. Stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and SoundCloud. You can also buy it from the artist on Bandcamp, where support goes straight into independent hands. Keep up with the project on its YouTube channel and on Facebook.
For anyone willing to give a record their full attention, Torn earns the time. It is a solemn, uncompromising album about love, illness, and endurance. It confirms Abysmal Growls of Despair as one of funeral doom’s most committed voices.
