Silent Tombs “Mourning Hymns From Beyond”
The gloom of existential downfall, of hopeless nights spent in funereal mourning. As the sun rises over us, its warmth is warned away, for there is nothing aglow here but candlelight. Shades drawn and longing for the night - embarking shadows like a security blanket in this perpetual state of longing for the end. The Doom way is the way of suffering! Of dismal overtures, dreadful verses and of somber choruses that harken life’s welcomed culmination. Iconic collectives such as Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride forged this desolate road decades ago; paving the way for bands like Mexico’s Silent Tombs.
Silent Tombs formed in the annual of 2017 and on October 17, they will release their long-awaited debut LP, Mourning Hymns From Beyond via Personal Records. A new chapter in Doom’s maligned tale to be uncovered. An album of the darkest consort, of reveling in the agony of existence. Tired, weary and just giving up on it all are we now on this - the eve of fate’s reckoning. In every way, musically, Mourning Hymns From Beyond is an homage to the aforementioned Paradise Lost: melancholically melodic, heavy as dense lead and fucking miserable… But herein lies great beauty as well. With each passing moment, you’ll take in breathtaking clean guitar parts, haunting riffs and divine melodies; all converging into gorgeous tracks like “Fade Away Journey (Echoes from Nowhere)”. A masterfully blended dual harmony between clean and heavy, distorted passages that give way to contemplative moments: ponderous soliloquies, bass stripped away to allow for soft percussion and gentle riffs to ease you into state of blessed melancholy.
Mourning Hymns From Beyond has been a long-awaited release. The fruit of toiling eight years now ripe and weighty in hand like an August peach. “Eclipsed By Despair” - a prime example of those above-mentioned thought-provoking passages - whispers set to finesse melodies and martial rhythms during the track’s intro abruptly shift back into gravitational chops and Mikael Åkerfeldt-like gutturals. The suspense is like those few seconds just before self-mutilation and the calm of it is like the seconds following the cut; endorphins in flow and for a moment forgotten is the pain of psychological torment. You can really tell just how much of themselves that Silent Tombs put into this recording. A meaningful record taxes the spirit of both its creator and of its taker in. A relinquishing endeavor indeed.
The Autumnal frost - slow-singeing life - a corrosive extinguishing of all that Spring & Summer so gracefully birthed. Decaying now to the sound of “An Autumn’s Lament”. Like Opeth, but ten times heavier, like Hangman’s Chair, only more savage. Sinking grooves pull you under into death’s murky mire. What an epic piece of work we have here: no fluff, no pretentiousness and no overreaching. A shot of spiritual heroin… The tranquility of “The Death Beckoning” - easing into this brief interlude as would an elder into a bath’s cozy warmth. Mourning Hymns From Beyond - a slipping of the sands through the hourglass of existence. To have known life, to have felt its enthralling pulse, only to have succumbed to the tragedy of the human condition…
Candles burnt to stumps and the curse of yet another rising of the Sun to remind you of the fact that life goes on… What a disheartening realization to know that you’re all alone. You can feel it in the same way as you would feel the despair of downpour during the closing couple of minutes of the instrumental closer, “Drowned in Oblivion”. Dreary spoken-word vocals - an assurance of all-hope-lost and a promise of suffering to come. What a magnificent album.
Silent Tombs - already a band of importance to their genre. Mourning Hymns From Beyond is a foreshadowing of great things to come. Everything from the album’s cover art down to its masterful engineering qualities are indicators of class - a character trait that cannot be taught. Class like the aforementioned Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride is what we have here. And it just feels right. “Mourning Hymns” is one of those sweet-spot massaging albums where everything is in place and there’s a place for everything. A veteran-level offering from one of Mexico’s newest Doom outfits. Nicely done.
SCORE: 9 / 10
You can purchase on the Silent Tombs’ Bandcamp
