[3] Written and recorded to create a "pure black metal album", it is the second of what is dubbed the band's "Unholy Trinity", along with A Blaze in the Northern Sky and Transilvanian Hunger.

[4] Drummer and songwriter Fenriz said that Darkthrone began writing Under a Funeral Moon in late 1991 to create a "pure black metal album".

[5] AllMusic journalist Eduardo Rivadavia wrote: "The record's songs—already shorter and more focused than those of its epic-filled predecessor—were buried under disfiguring cobwebs of fuzzy amp distortion".

He wrote that it "built upon the radical career reinvention undertaken on the previous year's A Blaze in the Northern Sky" and noted that it is considered "the second volume in Darkthrone's so-called 'unholy trinity' of form- and era-defining black metal albums".

Comparing it with the albums before and after, he said "what makes Under a Funeral Moon special is that it's more pure black metal than Blaze, but still has more variation than Transilvanian Hunger".