MOURNING BELOVETH - The Sullen Sulcus

[Life Sucks]

This is, in my opinion, the best doom metal album of all time. What we have here is over an hour of somber, melodic music that truly lives up to the genre’s moniker. There are no bluesy, psychedelic “stoner doom” riffs to be found here; just slow, melodic, sorrowful melodies. The song structures are far from conventional, though sometimes passages are repeated, but always in an effective way that enhances the song. This album is pure sonic depression, from first note to last. Each song is a complex narrative of anguish and despair, building up from the beginning and peaking towards the end. The first song, The Words that Crawled, begins with the opening riff (a somewhat typical, simple doomdeath riff) being played at low volume for a few measures, and then coming in at full volume with the vocals, which at this point are emotionally charged death growls. But this soon gives way to a less death metal-ish passage, with almost ballad-like riffing and spoken word vocals. The song soon returns to heavier riffing and death vocals, which eventually leads into a passage with a chugging death metal-ish riff with angry and anguish filled dm vocals, which is the emotional climax of the song. The song then returns to a mellower, despondent soundscape for the last few minutes. The next song, It Almost Looked Human, is a typical melodic doomdeath song the whole way through, comparable at times to My Dying Bride, but more melodic and gloomier. Track 4, Narcissistic Funeral, is, in my opinion, the best song on the album. The riffing is more complex than in the other songs the whole way through, while being equally melodic, and perhaps even more sorrowful. There is a passage with clean vocals towards the end of the song, and it fits perfectly. There are actually clean, sung vocals in most of the songs on here. I normally don’t like it when bands use both growls and clean vocals, as the clean vocal passages tend to sound forced (as they do in the case of, say, Opeth), but the transitions sound natural in every instance on this CD, and are executed flawlessly. The closing track, Anger’s Streaming Arrows, is another highlight. It starts out very slow and dark. The tempo eventually picks up, and the guitar riffs become faster, more melodic, and more depressing, and there are some very nice leads that play a melancholic melody that perfectly compliments the rhythm guitar to evoke that utterly hopeless, gloomy feeling that make the band so great. All the songs on this CD are over ten minutes long, except for track two, but they never get boring. Perhaps because the music is so slow (this is, after all, a doom metal CD), it takes that long for each composition to unfold and completely run its course. This is doom metal the way it should be. If you are into doomdeath at all, I can’t recommend this album enough.