Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 3/2/2014
Label: Southern Lord
/ Parasitic Records
‘The
Living Ever Mourn’ CD/LP/DD track listing:
1). The Last
Disease 06:27
2). I 01:40
3). I Am Decay
06:01
4). Empty
Prayers 06:38
5). The
Hollowing 06:19
6). II 01:53
7). Altars To
Wrath 04:42
8). Funeral
Dirge 08:01
The
Band:
Tim Call |
Drum, Vocals
Todd Burdette
| Vocals, Guitars, Bass
Review:
A
lot has been made of the musical histories of the two men that make up
Nightfell, and with good reason. Drummer/vocalist Tim Call comes to Nightfell
via Aldebaran, The Howling Wind, and as a live contributor to Mournful
Congregation. Guitarist/bassist/vocalist Todd Burdette comes from crust legends
Tragedy, His Hero is Gone and Severed Head of State. With résumés like those
it’s very easy to get hung up on comparisons to their previous work, or even
worse; dwelling on how different Nightfell sounds from their musical past.
While
there are certainly musical nods to each man’s musical pedigree throughout ‘The
Living Ever Mourn’, it’s a much more exciting album than just mashing those two
histories together. In fact, I’d say that while the album does have some of
those elements; ‘The Living Ever Mourn’ amounts to something completely
different. Sure, you'll recognize the influence of Tragedy in the lead guitars.
A prime example would be the opening riff of “I Am Decay”, which boasts a
similar musical theme to “Total Vision” from the “Nerve Damage” album. Another
place you might hear the seeds for Nightfell’s sound is in “Night Falls” from
Tragedy’s 2002 album Vengeance, though I’m not sure if that’s on purpose or
coincidental. You’ll also notice echoes of Aldebaran in some of the bleak
guitar harmonies, which are of vital importance to the album. Still, there's
more going on.
If
there’s an album this year that can match ‘The Living Ever Mourn’ for sheer
emotional weight, I have yet to hear it. Just listen to the deeply-rooted sonic
despair of “Empty Prayers”; a song highlighted by the sort of dreary, labored
choir singing you might expect to hear at a solemn religious gathering. I mean
that as a compliment, as it sounds like a deliberate choice, and one works
perfectly. It also perfectly illustrates a possible explanation as to why the
album succeeds in just about every area it could have. In the announcement of
the album, the press release indicated that it was created during a time of
real loss and grief for the men who created it, and that comes through in the
finished product. Now, I’m not sure that it would be fair to pit genuine loss
against something more hypothetical in a sort of depressing pissing
contest, but I do think it’s fair to say that genuine, first-hand human sorrow
can be a powerful source of inspiration for a metal album.
The
result of all of this is a death metal album with extraordinary emotional
depth. While the structure of each song is very straightforward, the melodies
are rich and the feelings they conjure can be complex. Trying to put too fine a
point on Nightfell’s sound is probably a fool’s errand. I could site doom,
crust, Edge of Sanity or early Amorphis, the blackened fringes of melodic death
metal and plenty in between and it would still come up short. That’s the
brilliance of ‘The Living Ever Mourn’. It’s deceptively simple, and yet it reveals
something you hadn't picked up on with each listen. Give it greater attention,
and you will be rewarded.
Words by: Daniel
Jackson
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more information:
