Mourning
Beloveth 'The Sullen Sulcus'
With their "Dust" debut having gaining rave reviews in nearly
every publication it encountered, Mourning Beloveth have elevated themselves
to artists now critically recognised on the international stage. Short
of Primordial this band is Ireland's hottest property at the current moment,
and fittingly they have now inked a deal with the niche market but well
repsected norweigan label Aftermath Music who are releasing The Sullen
Sulcus. Thats the background, so on to what we are really waiting to hear:
that as hoped and expected, they have bettered "Dust". The amount
they have matured since their first official outing is actually pretty
staggering; the clean vocals are implemented now as a core component of
the sound rather than as background effect, and are heart breakingly good.
As we have seen from both the debut and Frank's other band Old Season,
this guy really really knows how to carry a note. This would be good enough
- intertwined with Darrens fulsome gutteral dirge however, it is bordering
on omnipotent. Its a wonderful interplay the like of which many many more
bands would do to take note of. I'll just dwell on the vocal factor for
a second longer, as a subtle change has taken place worthy of much praise.
In times past the spoken dialogue was just too close for comfort to one
Aaron Stainthorpe, reinforcing often heard criticims that Mourning Beloveth
were simply aping My Dying Bride. This time round, Darren has chosen to
enunciate his spoken word much more naturally in his native soft brogue,
which adds to the material on many levels. While Aaron's spoken parts
for MDB were full of romance and melancholy, the use of a more distinctly
Irish tone carries with it all sorts of baggage: just that little bit
more mysticism, magic and colour. This is showcased to spellbinding effect
in opener "The Words that Crawled". In common with "The
Silent Enigma" for example, its suffocating sense of finality is
just tangible. Frank's clean and soft harmonies and the aforementioned
brogue lament, all floating above a lullaby-like sleepily swaying riff
posess a genuine emotional weight. I should know, I had it in my head
exclusively for about six consecutive days. To me this is the album's
highlight, as futher listening gets more and more challenging on account
of the density this Doom has. We're talking snail like beats and epic
drum fills in the vein of the classics, and it would be fair to say that
yes, this is all fairly reminiscent of pre- "Turn Loose the Swans"
era MDB. "The Narcissistic Funeral" especially does fall very
far into this trap, and the reason this cd isnt getting full marks is
due to the occasional over-indulgence in length. The title track to this
beast however is another stroke of genius, with more clean guitar and
great singing. I remarked once before in a live review of the band that
their music made even the very air seem thick, and this mountainous release
does exactly that. By no means is it a quick fix, but neither are all
the truly great albums. It's an odd thing you know; we have bands here
in Ireland (and also abroad) that play "celtic" or "Irish"
metal using jigs, reels and native musical phrases, and it captures that
aspect of the aesthetic that we most commonly think of. Mourning Beloveth,
through pure emotional weight and evocative riffs manage to capture something
else entirely - something more elusive, a mysticism and romance more in
tune with the spirituality of the land. And somehow, to me, this is ultimately
more of a representation of those things inherently celtic than the other
more overtly "celtic" metal we have. Just something to ponder
as you open your wallet.
4.6 / 5. -Ciaran Tracey ::: 10/01/02
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