Mournful Congregation: The Unspoken Hymns

The Unspoken Hymns is a compilation release which collects five tracks by funeral doomsters Mournful Congregation, which previously existed only on various limited edition and out-of-print vinyl releases. Often releases like this appeal primarily to fans of the artist in question, but I think that this particular compilation will not only appeal to fans of Mournful Congregation, but it may also be of interest to people who are unfamiliar with the band, provided that they are already into funeral doom metal, because this genre is certainly not for everyone.

The music is extremely slow – on the verge of almost disintegrating at times – and characterized by melancholic and depressive droning guitar harmonies with simplistic, but effective, heavy drumbeats and an overall oppressive and tortured feel. While heavy and doom-ladden, the tunes on this album are actually quite melodic because of the above-mentioned use of guitar harmonies, and the tempo changes (from very slow to slow) that appear in some of the tunes work extremely well in creating some sort of dynamism in the music.

I am not a big fan of the growled vocals, I must admit, but at the same time I cannot really imagine how this would sound with clear vocals – then again, there are some passages in the Thergothon cover 'Elemental' with a clean liturgical dirge-like chanting which could indicate how the tracks would have sounded like with clean vocals. I think they would sound even more depressive and mournful.

Anyway, this is a collection of beautifully oppressive and mournful funeral doom tunes and it should appeal to both fans (as a lot of this material has previously been very difficult to access) and to fans of funeral doom metal in general.

Track Listing:
1. Left Unspoken (new version)
2. The Epitome Of Gods And Men Alike
3. A Slow March To The Burial
4. Descent Of The Flames
5. Elemental (Thergothon cover)

Added: July 31st 2011
Reviewer: Kim Jensen
Score:
Related Link: Band MySpace Page
Hits: 2199
Language: english

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