Title: Adorned in fear and error
Label: Old Lion Recordings
Release Date: October 2, 2017
Country: U.S.A.
Midmourner are around since 2014, and according to their FB page, they are stylistically into the Subterranean Dopesick Blues genre. Actually, Birmingham Alabama’s Midmourner provides classy sludge doom, combining the best in the style - heavy doomy riffs, distorted bass lines, and deep slow tempo. Yes, they might have taken some of the solid riff ground played 40 years ago by the Birmingham UK teachers Black Sabbath, and bits by some of the most popular names currently in this particular style. However, Midmourner added their own flavor and developed it in own super heavy and sludgy modern pattern, crushing everything down to the ground.
Even just the cover of the album insists for stone-cold stillness experience in the gothic end. The sound though is so sludgy, dirty and muddy, that I could feel the sticky soil stuck in my throat while listening. Vocals appear to be very similar to a swamp monster, gutturally spitting stagnant rotten soil and hate.
“Adorned in fear and error” consist of six songs, with a total running time of slightly above 29 minutes. It is unnecessary to stand out one or another song, the album ends in just a (last) breath. Very quickly. It is one of those albums which has to be listened just because of the overall experience and feeling it leaves - heavy hopelessness in the mud. It easily pictures stilled waters, rain falling on top of a casket, drowning into the soil.
As I was so keen on the sludge doom in 2017, I was able to dig into many of the popular and not so popular bands and albums. This Midmourner EP really got me immediately - it is so sticky that I listened it on repeat several times, just because to feed the hunger for what it left in me. Definitely, I’ll be looking forward to the full-length album.
Now all the sludge doom maniacs can have this solid start of the band on cassette or digitally. I urge the rest of the fanbase to try it too. Definitely no need of rope and chair, Midmourner are bringing all the soil to suffocate you and throw your body into the deepest swamps. 8.5/10 By Count Vlad
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