"Our Condolences 1988-1992" is a compilation album by Norwegian death metal act Old Funeral. The compilation was released through Soulseller Records in February 2013. Old Funeral existed from 1988-1992 and at various points featured future members of Immortal and Burzum (among others), but before some of the members went on to black metal infamecy, they recorded two demos and an EP with Old Funeral. All material from those three releases is included on "Our Condolences 1988-1992", but the compilation also features quite a few bootleg quality live recordings, an unreleased track recorded at Grieghallen recording studio during 1991, and the four unreleased demo tracks recorded at Kardemommehuset in September 1992, shortly before Old Funeral disbanded.
Of the material from the two 1989/1990 demos and the June 1991 "Devoured Carcass" EP, it´s the tracks from the latter as well as the material from the July 1990 "Abduction of Limbs", which are the most interesting. The seven tracks from the 1989 "The Fart That Should Not Be" demo are amaturish and not that great. The unreleased "Forced to Be Lost" track sounds like it´s a takeout from the "Devoured Carcass" recording sessions, which makes sense as the material on the EP was also recorded at Grieghallen recording studio.
The live material which consists of eight tracks (most recorded live at Garage, Bergen, Norway 6th April 1991) are lo-fi bootleg quality recordings and even the most ardent fan of Old Funeral will probably find them hard to appreciate.
So besides the worthwhile second demo and EP material described above the real gems of "Our Condolences 1988-1992" are the four tracks from the unreleased September 1992 demo (and the unreleased "Forced to Be Lost" track). While most of the material recorded and released during Old Funeral´s lifetime was old school death metal with a sometimes blackened thrash metal edge (at least the material on the first demo), the four tracks from the September 1992 display a band about to transform into a black metal band. The vocals are now raspy black metal snarling and while this is still too meaty and brutal to be labelled a 100% black metal recording, it´s not really death metal anymore either. What remains is that these tracks are quite enjoyable, well composed, and very well performed. Old Funeral were definitely on to something here, which could have brought them far in the Norwegian musical climate of 1992/1993.
It´s a bit hard to evaluate a release like "Our Condolences 1988-1992" because half of the material featured on the compilation really isn´t worth your time...but the other half is great material defnitely worth your attention and appreciation, so I´ll guess I´ll settle just above the middle rating. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.