Two of Oregon’s best team up to bring forth the waves of despair and sadness. Hell, the one man band of M.S.W, is sure keeping busy. Three full-length albums and four split releases since the band’s conception back in 2006, and all of them up to a very high level of quality. On the other hand, the band led by A.L.N. (also part of the live line-up of Hell), named Mizmor is another rising force in the underground scene of Oregon. With their self-released debut album, they presented to the world their twisted doom/sludge/drone/black vision.
This release is being introduced by Hell and their fifteen minute long opus, “Foetorem Timere”, the clean bits of which will cause a mesmerizing paralysis of your brain. For the first nine minutes you will be overwhelmed by the clean guitars and emotional depth that Hell can reach. The setting for the band is a world filled with despair and loneliness, where everything is just waiting to die. There is a certain coldness about the song that makes it stand out in such a unique way, while the inclusion of strings even further expands the desolate ambiance and the voice samples make this listen more unearthly. Finally, the doom/sludge riffs are brought in to redeem you from this torturous build up, causing the whole sonic landscape that the band has built up for the last nine minutes to collapse, as the appearance of crazy effects on the vocals and their formation amidst these heavy riffs causes apocalyptic visions to enter your mind.
And then it is Mizmor’s turn to complete this devastating release. With a more straightforward approach and with their black metal infused sound, the introduction of the fifteen-minute long “Epistemoligical Rupture” reveals the band’s intention and its teeth. The cut throat vocals soon rise from the abyss to haunt you, buried a bit deeper within the music. The impressive aspect of Mizmor is their ability to interchange their influences when the track needs that. From the black metal introductory assault, to the doom/sludge filth about three minutes in, while the band still allows for a few more melodic lines to swoop in the unwelcoming nature of the track. Even when the change requires more effort – as is the case when Mizmor bring forth their drone self about eight minutes in the song, causing their soundscapes to be filled with low frequencies originating from the band’s amps – they still do it with an amazing sense of ease.
Neither of these two bands is your typical “slow and repetitive” sort of doom/sludge music. Hell with their intriguing melodic bits, heavy ambiance and their overpowering heavy riffs and Mizmor with their fascinating changes and sickening outlook give you half an hour of otherworldly music. You do not want to miss out on this.
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