Lovingly pinched from The Sleeping Shaman: Many, many times we hear the old cliché about a bands difficult second album. Let’s put that old adage to bed right now.
After 2009′s master class in dark brooding metallic hardcore, namely Feral Ward’s Untold Wait we have here the follow up record. With this, Morne has kept their sound whilst delving into a slower more complex direction (akin to the title track from Untold Wait). It is a complex record compared to previous material not only in terms of musicianship but primarily complex in structure.
Clocking in at 66 minutes long the record lends coherence as each song follows nicely into the other making it a very comfortable listen, sweeping keyboard passages; with sparse piano add a total sense of ambience whilst the driving guitars give it much needed edge.
To my ears the key to a good production is drum sound, without it a record will sound weak no matter how good everything else sounds. Rest assured the drums are pounding and not too high in the mix; guitar tone is cutting with a subtle bass throbbing behind to make it all ultra heavy. And heavy it is. The vocals as always are not overdone and too high in the mix, they appear only when necessary and this allows the great guitar work to breathe.
Lots of picked chords and great riffs, and riffs there are a plenty. Not good riffs but great riffs, a demonstration of great song-writing with amazing trademark breaks in ambience that lead to pulverizing metallic chugging punk riffs, like in personal favourite ‘I Will See You’ the mid section is just amazing with its primal guitar work and a great solo at the end just to seal the deal.
Continue reading: The Sleeping Shaman – Morne ‘Asylum’ CD/2xLP 2011.
Tags: Album of the day, Asylum, doom, Jas Murray, Morne, Mornecrust, profound lore, The Sleeping Shaman
This entry was posted on Friday, June 17th, 2011 at 2:01 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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