The line is made up of an infinite number of points; the plane of an infinite number of lines; the volume of an infinite number of planes; the hypervolume of an infinite number of volumes…
Book Of Sand‘s fourth album entitled Mourning Star is the latest release from the Jersey Shore deviants at Music Ruins Lives. Seven tracks in just under an hour which paint a hauntingly disturbing musical portrait. From the very first track this album is quite jarring because of its base and chaotic nature. “The Face Of Water” begins with what sounds like someone playing on a children’s four key toy piano or some other kind of toy instrument and is very creepy until it crashes and what follows and plays out for the duration of the album is a blackened and doomed cacophany. My guess would be that they sourced their name from the Jorge Luis Borges story, anyway, this Minneapolis trio know how to cook their experimental black metal and let it stew to a perfection. It should also be noted that Music Ruins Lives (MRL) have a knack for releasing very ambiguous and eerie music by somewhat shadowy artists who are constantly pushing and bending genres with their music. Mourning Star is a fairly heavy album ranging in doomy breakdowns and speed-driven pulses but also at times interjecting that certain funeral-esque grandeur that is prevalent with bands like Australia’s Mournful Congregation for example, albeit without the theatrics in the vocal approach. In fact that lack of bombast is what makes Book Of Sand stand out in a sea of names. “Crawling Through Sand, Crawling Through Earth” is a composition which masks its beauty through high pitched shrieks but the layers unfold with each successive measure and what unravels is an onion-like gristle of truth. Truth not as in honestly but as in truthful expression. This musical expression collides into some brilliantly placed spanish guitar licks which bring to mind Sepultura‘s similar use on Beneath The Remains. “Planet SUV” is the longest running track here at just over fifteen minutes, it’s a violent cut which verges deeper into black metal territory than any of the other tracks on Mourning Star. The musicianship of this band really shines through on this track in particular because of the different instruments featured, which includes some sadistic saxophone abuse that would make Bleeding Gums Murphy cry.
Mourning Star should drop later this month in a limited run of 100 hand-numbered copies which come in a screen printed sleeve sporting silver ink on blue cardstock, plus an insert. Only from MRL.
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