Here’s another addition to the depressive, doomy black metal genre from France’s Mourning Dawn, formed by Inborn Suffering’s (a pretty solid funeral doom band in their own right) Laurent, and while not quite as elite or disturbing as come of their county mates (Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega, Vehementer Nos, Obscurus Advocam, etc), and with a more pure doom backbone, Mourning Dawn delivers plenty of scrawling, cold and clammy (but well produced) blackened doom that should appeal to fans of Forgotten Tomb and Moribund’s roster.

After a brief intro, the band delivers the album’s highlight; the sprawling 14-minute “From The Torrent and The Fountain” with showcases the bands sound; lengthy tracks of cold, atmospheric, lethargic doom delivered with a more tremolo based sound, with black metal shrieks, growls and occasional, more traditional bursts of blackened nihilism. The rest of the slightly shorter tracks (6-10 minutes) follow suite with “Interlude” serving as well, an interlude. The music isn’t as twisted and depressive and many of their peers, but its certainly melancholic and at times draining, as on the closing instrumental “Verdun” (though the subject matter may assist). A few of kilter, but effective moments litter the tracks, like the old tyme-y recorded piano in “Grey Flood” and violin in “As the Ocean…”, but I would have like to have heard more as they worked pretty well.

With this solid release along with the Beneath the Frozen Soil/Negative Reaction split, The Knell and Funeralium releases, newcomer Total Rust looks to be a bleak label to contend with indeed.

[Visit the band's website]

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