Mourning Cloak do not fuck about, do not fuck about at all. This five piece doom band from Atlanta, Georgia have unleashed a three track album called No Visible Light, a title which matches content perfectly... it’s nothing but a dark punishing doom assault. But unlike silly endurance doom, you know… when someone just standing there with a bass guitar playing one note every 20 minutes whilst your pint vibrates across the table, you do actually want to bob your head to it. However, there is very relief from the relentless repetition. We all know there’s an absolute fuck load of doom bands around at the moment, so you really need to stand out from the crowd. Do they do this? I think so.
There are only three tracks to this album but they are all quite lengthy little fellas, around the 8 – 15 minute mark. The opening and title track ‘No Visible Light’ has a warm hum before firing a brutal yet seemingly catchy riff… think Toner Low, Hebosagil etc, the usual suspects. We’re then introduced to the vocals and fuck me… H E A V Y!!!! They start of as black metal, pretty nasty black metal before we’re enjoying some slow death metal growls… everything weirdos like us could possibly need. The lead work guitar is present but not dominant and the production is tight and really well balanced. You could compare them to a less trippy Ufomammut, reinforced by the occasional sample they throw into the mix. The other tracks ‘Erosion’ and ‘White Halos’ are much of the same really and the band would make no apology for this and quite rightly so. It’s clear they want to hold your attention through gruelling repetition rather to reinvent the wheel.
If you are a doom fan, go and grab yourself a copy… it’s a more than solid notch to add to your bed post. Mourning Cloak aren’t going to turn the doom scene upside down but there are times during the journey when you just think ‘this is absolutely fucking ridiculous’, which is exactly what every doom should be delivering. It’s awesome, but not quite Ufomammut awesome, but riffs are top notch and they sound like Bongripper with a black metal vocalist, surely I have convinced you now?
