| THE SULLEN SULCUS Review |
Mourning Beloveth 'The Sullen Sulcus' Turgid waves crashing on an un seen shore. A towering edifice just beyond the edges of perception. Reacquisition of reality and with it a gnawing dread. Loss. Self-doubt. The inability to cope. Nausea. Crushing pressure. A distant tremor, uneasiness, a sickness, lodged in the deepest reaches of the subconscious. This is the essence of the sonic environment inhabited by The Sullen Sulcus. While less dense than Disembowelment, less repetitious than Earth, less epic than Candlemass and less out-and-out synapses fusing insane than Esoteric, Mourning Beloveth nonetheless capitalises on the strengths of all these bands. However, this album is far beyond a mere synthesis of staple records of doom. Beyond the aesthetic convergence, it is evident this band understands what separates a loose collection of musical ideas from a cohesive powerful record and they use the techniques of these bands as tools to achieve their own end. Opener "The Words that Crawled" unfolds from a sickly crawl to a chilling vocal juxtaposition between Darren Moore's withering growl and a stone-faced spoken diatribe. Ordinarily this would be regarded as a gimmick, but guitarist frank sounds so utterly resigned to his fate, it works. His threnody also infuses The Sullen Sulcus with a more impassioned element, and while this kind of vocal dynamic is not a new idea, they've struck a near perfect balance, an ideal complement to their subdued but often spectacular musical movements. Naturally it is the guitar work that forms the core of this album. References to the aforementioned outfits abound, but Mourning Beloveth make full use of the flexibility afforded them by having a second guitarist, and the ebb and flow of their songs, from stark droning simplicity to churning riffs laced with exquisite harmony, eludes the predictability of any preconceived doom format. Mourning Beloveth songs move tumultuously but fluidly through eddies of turmoil, rising from the mire on occasion only to come crashing back to earth again. The end result is six monolithic, undeniably complete songs, which run along without becoming bloated. Unlike most bands of their ilk, Mourning Beloveth have deliberately chosen to encapsulate such bleak music in the sleek warm tones of Academy Studios, a familiar sound which is likely the source of the My Dying Bride comparisons they often receive (although I swear I've heard sections of "The Insolent Caul" lurking in their back catalogue somewhere.) And yet, the decision is a sound one, as it serves the dynamic transitions moreso than would a colder, more suffocating capture. The Sullen Sulcus is a monumental release, one that successfully ups the ante for all other doom bands and cements this bands position among the doom elite. Loren Ballanti |