Mourning Mist : s/t

A violinist and the bass player from Abhor are what the band thinks are there key selling point. While their drummer is pretty good too, they are not wrong, these are two elements that help them stand out from the endless stream of black metal coming out. Another element is the more Venom like spoken vocals on the first song. The violin takes the place of guitar solos. Or so you would think it sounds as if the guitar wants to shred too , but there are many places where it's hard to tell the two apart. In the final minute of the opener the band descends into a sound  more common with the masses.

They let the violin set up 'Free Fall" which is an odd title for a black metal song. The vocal following a more scathing path and the song races a taunt line. The band gets credit for caring about musicality and not just slapping you around with blast beats. They have the eerie dissonance covered as well. All this and a rather progressive side. There is more meat to songs like "Rage", even when the band changes pace on a dime. The  angry spoken vocals which are my least favorite element of their sound return.

One of the albums heaviest riffs is on "Torment". For a black metal band they have a pretty straight up classic metal guitar sound that is even more evident on this song. The chug is pretty powerful so no one will complain that they are too metal. This even takes them to the point of becoming thrash on "Torment".  These blatant metal foot on the monitor moments don't let up on "Rise and Decay". The acrobatics do tend to over shadow the song by this point. The vocals are extra crispy in their rasp. The bassist really shines when they slow down the proceedings and this tone quantifies. They surprisingly switch over into a clean guitar tone for "Lament" that closes the album. This turns out to be more of an instrumental outro than a song.

This album kept me entertained. If you prefer more traditional metal  and are open to exploring something with a black metal slant, then is album would be a good gateway drug for you.It's entertaining, they have chops and care about the journey they take you on within their songs. I'll give this an 8.5, it's pretty solid, some of the angry spoken vocals weren't my thing, but this album is very well done.

4.3