### Mournful Congregation: The book of kings

#### 15/12/11 || gk

Australia’s Mournful Congregation formed in 1993 and over the course of 3 full length releases and a handful of splits become one of the finest purveyors of mournful, funeral doom in the world. This year sees the band release its fourth full length album and firmly lay claim to the top of the funeral doom heap.

“The Book of Kings” is a new chapter for the band. In a sense they’ve gone back to the monolithic song structures of 2005’s “Monad of Creation.” “The Book of Kings” contains 4 songs that span a breathtaking 76 odd minutes. Opening with the 20 minute “The Catechism of Depression” the song goes from huge lumbering riffs that stretch into infinity to a delicate acoustic break and back again with a feeling of melancholy that is unmatched. This song sets up the entire album and they simply go from strength to strength. “The Waterless Streams” feels like a plodding one note dirge on first listen but the more you listen to this song, the more the layers get peeled back till you realise that the suffocating riff sits next to an atmosphere of calm that is very difficult to achieve but here seems completely natural. “The Bitter Veils of Solemnity” is a lengthy acoustic song that is beautiful with a spoken word vocal performance that heightens the atmosphere and induces an almost trance like meditative state but is perhaps a couple of minutes too long.

The album closes with the title song which is told in movements and goes past the 30 minute mark. The opening combination of a classic doom metal riff and powerful vocals that go from growl to spoken and growl again is stunning. The guitars swirl and echo creating a mood of intense longing and sadness before the first break and a shift to heavier more claustrophobic climes. A mid tempo chugging riff sets the foundation over which the song is built and it effortlessly soars and matches the lyrics about a forgotten time of gods and kings. The song builds in heaviness and complexity as it heads towards the halfway mark and we head into the next movement with a delicate little guitar solo and another superb melodic doom riff that manages to embody sadness. The last few minutes of the song are taken up with a tasteful guitar solo that rounds out the entire song and everything finally ends as a keyboard chimes and the final lines of the lyric are recited leaving me completely in awe.

Funeral doom often brings to mind repetitive and droning riffs that go on forever and an atmosphere of ugly hopelessness. What Mournful Congregation bring to the table is an all encompassing sense of melancholy. Of the listener being dwarfed and dominated by the environment that this music creates and it’s not all bleak and ridden with despair. Yes, it’s supremely heavy and crushing but it’s also beautiful, delicate and occasionally fragile. Each song brings about all of these emotions often close together with a crushing and disturbing riff sitting next to a calm and melodic part while sounding completely natural in its delicate and subtle variations.

Mournful Congregation are at the top of their game on “The Book of Kings.” All comparisons to other bands and even to their own strong back catalogue are rendered superfluous in comparison to the four songs on offer here. This music has left me in awe with the moods it creates and the myriad emotions it invokes. This is rich, multi faceted music as art that will leave the listener completely entranced by its power.

“Our last rites have been written… but not yet read”

Utterly magnificent.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Weird Truth Productions
- Website: Mournful Congregation MySpace.
- Band
- Ben Newsome: bass
- Justin Hartwig: guitars
- Damon Good: guitars, vocals
- Adrian Bickle: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. The Catechism of Depression
- 02. The Waterless Streams
- 03. The Bitter Veils of Solemnity
- 04. The Book of Kings