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Beware doom fans worldwide, we have only reached the month of March and I can already tell you that ‘A Murderous Circus’ is one of the top 2005 doom releases. Mourning Beloveth have managed to create a true masterpiece filled with emotions of sadness, melancholia and despair. This being the third release of the Irish doom metal band shows us that the sound has grown over the years becoming more mature. The record takes you on a very long journey (75 minutes) through harsh darkness that easily flows into quiet melancholic melodies. Each song builds up very slow with both heavy guitar riffing and still melodies together with screams and the not uncommon lamentations. Mourning Beloveth’s vocalist Darren has a broad capability in singing different styles which gives a great touch to the specific instrumental music.
A few highlight of the album can be heard on ‘Elemental Nausea’ and ‘Nothing (The March Of Death)’. This last one is almost 20 minutes long and can be divided into two parts and especially the second part is of pure beauty. It commences with the sound of wind blowing through a forest together with a smooth talking voice in the background accompanying a simple guitar melody. This melody builds up to a climax with a higher pitched guitar sound giving the song a magnificent ending while the music fades away again with the sound of wind. Although everything feels promising until now my first impression listening to the album wasn’t that positive. I found it sounding weird and to simplistic but gladly enough after listening again I came to my senses. People that are familiar with the band know that there is an obvious link with My Dying Bride. Especially the quieter parts do remind me allot of the newer material from MDB which I don’t find bad at all because for a long-time I thought only one band was able to make such music.
The style in the artwork also changed, no more obscure drawings like on the previous albums but dark photographs of castles, modern buildings and a child with wings. Also the band logo has been altered but the initials are luckily kept. Darren explains on the press paper that the whole artwork gives a ‘smokey atmosphere’ and suits the mood of the music perfectly to which I can only agree with. The album was recorded in the ‘Klangschmiede Studio E’ which is Ulf Theodor Schwadorf’s (ex-Empyrium, The Vision Bleak) home studio and is the place where most records on the Prophecy label are recorded. This only enforces the fact that we are dealing with pure quality. Besides the regular edition the album will also be released as a luxury digipak with a bonus CD as if 75 minutes of music wasn’t enough for these guys. The future for Mourning Beloveth looks promising and together with bands such as Primordial the metal world will recognize Ireland as a deliverer of great acts.
| Tracklist |
| 1. The Apocalypse Machine |
| 2. Elemental Nausea |
| 3. The Crashing Wave |
| 4. Nothing (The March Of Death) |
| 5. …Yet Everything |
: 75.03
| Buy other Mourning Beloveth albums |
