A MURDEROUS CIRCUS Review

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Mourning Beloveth 'A Murderous Circus'

Vampire Mag

The sorrow of mankind, downfall of our society, it seems we've entered a dark part in the history of our so called civilisation again. What I listen at the moment can be described as the ultimate soundtrack of this perishing.
Packed in a wonderful digi-pack, this third album of Irish masters of melancholy; Mourning Beloveth, has become a real masterpiece. I guess many people will have been doubt or this band would be able to equalise the magnificent predecessor 'The Sullen Sulcus'. But they did! In my opinion 'A Murderous Circus' is at least as good as 'The Sullen Sulcus'; an album that can be seen as one of the highlights in the doom genre of the last decade.
'A Murderous Circus' isn't the easiest album to get into, at least for me it wasn't. The album is quite straightforward in a way that we hear only the essence of Mourning Beloveth's musical art. No unnecessarily filling, no needless guitar-riffs, no fuss, just back to the essence of the songs! Some will call the production barren or flat, in a way they're right, but this fits the music best. It only takes a more intensive time of listening before you totally get into it.
The album contains five songs, which replenish each other in such a good way that there isn't even one song that is inferior to another one. Although for me the fourth track; 'Nothing (the march of death)', sticks out above the other songs. This almost 20 minutes counting epos brings me on a journey through my deepest inner feelings. It starts already at the very first second of the song, with a very simple yet effective acoustic guitar part. The double vocals; spoken words and clean singing, are the personification of all misery in this world. The mourning guitar riffs and sorrowful grunts penetrate into my inner soul. The intermezzo during the middle of the song; in which you feel like you're lying under the ground in a tomb without being dead, hearing the sounds of the things above you, are really scaring and will take you in a kind of trance; which works out till a climax at the end of the song.
After the fantastic 'the Gathering Wilderness' album of Primordial, this is the second Irish masterpiece of melancholy unleashed upon mankind this year. 'A murderous Circus' has become an album of an exceptional beauty which will grab you to never release anymore, as long as your strong enough to uncover your soul for it.