On August 2 internationally, Personal Records will release Mourners Lament's second album, A Grey Farewell, on CD format.
Formed in 2004, Mourners Lament are a doom-death metal band hailing from Viña del Mar, Chile. During their first years, they released a demo in 2004 and then an EP, Unbroken Solemnity, in 2008. Those two recordings launched the quintet onto numerous gigs within the Chilean doom scene, some of them with classic bands like Poema Arcanus and Mar de Grises.
Lineup changes followed during the next handful of years, as Mourners Lament underwent a minor period of silence while preparing what would be their debut album. Titled We All Be Given, the band's first full-length would first be released in 2016 by esteemed national label Canometal Records, and then later the next year internationally through Hammerheart Records. Between the two editions, Mourners Lament established themselves as a considerable new(er) name in the wider doom-death scene.
After the debut album's initial release, Mourners Lament continued playing live shows in their native Chile, climbing to a higher position in the national doom scene. Later on, two new members took over drums and vocal duties, and a new lineup was established in 2019, which continues to this day. This new-look Mourners Lament brought fresh sounds and spirit to the band, resulting in the new EP Grieving at a Distance in 2022 and their first adventure in European territory that same year.
After the Euro tour, which included an appearance at the renowned Dutch Doom Days festival, the band started the process of a new album. At last here, A Grey Farewell easily eclipses its not-inconsiderable full-length predecessor. Here, Mourners Lament erect a towering monument to misery: six songs in nearly 65 minutes, the album is an emotional and dark journey across a majestic & melancholic landscape. Undoubtedly, it's pure doom-death by definition - riffs crush and then reverberate, rhythms lumber before nearly disappearing into darkness, guttural vocals either meld with both or play counterpart, and icy, almost-sensual synths flow with subtlety and a quiet power - but Mourners Lament prove to be masterful songwriters, patiently building arcs that unfold dark drama and bittersweet emotion, and then seamlessly threading the whole experience together as one unified work that's equally spacious and suffocating. That there's a bit more polish here only makes A Grey Farewell that much better, particularly given the band's penchant for dynamic quietude.
The raw-yet-rich emotion of the earliest days of the Peaceville Three - Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema, altogether THE eternal template for doom-death metal - can still be a fertile field for inspiration. It would not be hyperbole to suggest that A Grey Farewell is perhaps one of the best modern examples of pure doom-death that imparts its own personality.
Preorder at the Personal Records webshop.
Tracklisting:
“Towards Abandonment”
“Changes”
“Ocaso”
“The Clear Distance”
“In A White Room”
“Mass Eulogy”
“Towards Abandonment”:
