On disc: Mourning Beloveth

 
- The Sullen Sulcus
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
- A Disease For The Ages
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 

A Disease For The Ages

(grau - 2008)



 
 

 

The Irish Mourning Beloveth start slowly with guitars, then the band joins in and a mournful grunt joins the heavy riffs. The opening track is called The Sickness and shows the Irish's dark, doomy side which are combined with deathly grunts. The album is about the slowly decay of body and mind. And as this process is slow and often painful, the music is full of pain... of grief. You can feel the despair. Its the combination of Darren's grunts and Frank's clean vocals which make it even more intense. Towards the end of The Sickness you can almost feel physically the pain! On Trace Decay the clean vocals add something solemn... almost majestic, but with a sad note. On this second song they vary a bit more, but stay with the doomy riffs. It somehow feels like the guitars battle the decay... Fight for live, but then a break and they slow down, like they gave up the fight. Surrender to decay. Primeval Rush starts almost acoustically, then explodes. And again they change speed and use different riffs. But somehow the song isn't as intense as the previous ones... The opening of The Burning Man seems to be influenced by traditional metal, but still is doom metal with grunts. Its just an element in the beginning of the song. With Poison Beyond All they end. Opened up with a drum beat the monolithic riffs take you away. Take you down. The album leaves you exhausted. And somehow you are glad it's over, coz it feels like you can't take any more!

The album with its depressive atmosphere is so full of grief that it's hard to stand. But in it's mournful way it's fascinating. So far the best work of the Irish quintet!
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
up 










The Sullen Sulcus

(Aftermath Music - 2002)



 
 

 

The Irish doom death metal band exists for 10 years, but their debut hit the stores in 2001 and was called Dust. Now the quintet is back with The Sullen Sulcus, a 6 track album with a running time of about 65 minutes. For many bands from the death metal genre songs have to be hyperfast, but the Irish do the contrary and combine doom metal with death metal vocals, but that isn't it at all. The opening track The Words That Crawled starts with death metal growls, but after a while clear vocals, more spoken words replace the growls. A delay effect on the vocals made them more intense, later they get back to the growls while the instrumental part keep continuing the main theme with variations. On Dust the band was compared with My Dying Bride, but with The Sullen Sulcus they proof that they found their own identity. The more then 12 minute long album opener is a good example for the epic doom metal with death growls and clean vocals. The second track on this disc is called It Almost Looked Human which in my opinion isn't as strong as the opening track. Perhaps it's the clean vocal part on this track which didn't fit at all or perhaps just need a few more spins... On The Insolent Caul the solemn clean vocal parts make the song interesting and add a progressive touch as well as the tempi changes. Probably more clean vocal parts would fit the song in it's entirety. My personal fave is Narcissistic Funeral which is interesting through tempi changes and unusual instrumental parts which lead into a clean vocal part which has a special magic.

These days not many bands play this kind of music and don't give a damn about the current musical trends. The 5 Irish do what they want, even if this won't make them big. This isn't a masterpiece, but a more then decent album which will find metal fans who will love it. Nothing for the masses, but the doomsters will find their audience.
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
up 





 
           ©2008-2010 by Claudia Ehrhardt • E-Mail: contact@ice-vajal.com