Bellwitch : "Mirror Reaper"

First off let me tell you how much I hate the fact that this new album is one 83 track. So the for the purpose of this review I am breaking it down into fifteen minute increments.

  the first 15 The first four minutes is a very tentative drone that has more in common with a slow unfolding post- rock song than doom. It lacks the oppressive and sorrow nature of doom. They lost their drummer during the making of this album and I don't feel the sense of loss they spoke of in press releases. Billy Anderson worked the board on this so it sounds very spacious. The low growl of vocal come in around the seven minute mark.It swells into a droning chant of clean vocals that are used as a ghostly instrument on their own. This sounds great , but walks the line when it comes to funeral doom as I would not say this is especially dark.

 The second 15

 Approaching the 17 minute mark it's clear this could have been trimmed and at 17 minutes in this could have been edited into the second song. The tension is broken we have a clear delineation where this second song should begin, unless you want to be self indulgent and turn this into the grandiose thing that it is. Its right before we hit the 30 minute mark that the vocals go into more of a nasty death rasp and things being to get heavier in a more aggressive metal sense than I recall hearing the band dig into.

 The third 15

 This is a droning continuation of the theme already developed lower sung vocals do echo out of the dark abyss they are trying to casting light from, but I am not sure it's enough for me to have invested the previous 15 minutes for. The sonic scope of what they are doing is however impressive.

 The fourth 15

 There is more of a psychedelic 60s feel to the folk like vocals that ride the fragile drone, that seeks to find space more than it does heaviness. This carries echoes of Jesu, though with a slightly less shoe gaze feel.

 The fifth 15

 The vocals carry over here, though they are more layered and harmonized as it is a residual from the build of the last movement. The guitar stays dreamy rather than dark or heavy. It drifts further out into the atmosphere.

the sixth 15 and ending

There is an organ that appears here to usher in the slow rise of the doom returning at what is at this point and hour and ten minutes into things. It swells into something more metal though we are talking about metal in Jesu's zip code which means by merit of hypnotic power. The final four minutes finds it fading back into nothingness with fragile fanfare to say farewell. I will give this album a 7.5 , there are cool sections an it sounds great , the vocals have also improved.