Mournful Congregation - The Monad Of Creation

[RelentlessOblivion]

Band: Mournful Congregation Album - The Monad Of Creation Year: 2005 Genre: Funeral Doom Label: Weird Truth Productions Track Listing 1. Mother - Water, The Great Sea Wept (18:21) 2. As I Drown In Loveless Rain (11:21) 3. When The Weeping Dawn Beheld Its Mortal Thirst (10:04) 4. The Monad Of Creation (20:54) Mournful Congregation are a Funeral Doom band from Australia. The Monad Of Creation is the band's first full length release though prior to it they released many demos and split EPs with bands including Worship. everything about this album screams funeral doom, from the depressing atmosphere to the song lengths to the tempo. Mother - Water, The Great Sea Wept opens this album with crushing, heavy chords before a brief vocal line signals the change into a melodious progression of notes. another vocal line signals a shift back into crushingly thick and heavy chords, dissonant melodies combined with the extremely deep growls create a very dark atmosphere, this section gives way to clean notes underneath a spoken word section which quickly gives rise to another run of distorted chords with clean undertones whilst the spoken word section continues. the interplay of clean and heavy sections is a feature of both this song and this album. As I Drown In Loveless Rain begins with a more melodious run of notes, a progression which repeats itself several times before giving way to thick chords played over a spoken word section. once again the atmosphere of this song is deeply depressing When The Weeping Dawn Beheld Its Mortal Thirst begins with a dissonant clean section of notes simultaneously soothing and moody. this clean section continues on for some time with a whispered vocal line joining eventually leading into a clear spoken verse. all over this changing progression of clean notes lasting much longer then many others on the album. This is the shortest song on the album though at ten minutes in length it is hardly what one would call short. From the shortest track to the longest, the title track The Monad Of Creation is an epic of nearly twenty one minutes, and is also among the slowest tracks I have ever heard. the atmosphere which is somewhat lacking in the track prior returns drearier then ever as this track slowly marches it's way from your speakers. once again Mournful Congregation's inate sense of melody permeates this track crafting beautiful and depressing melodies which give way to crushing chords and harsh vocals only briefly at first but as the song journies onwards these section become more prevalent This is not an album to bang your head to, it is an album to be experienced alone, in the dark preferably so the atmosphere can be fully appreciated. Mournful Congregation do not create memorable riffs and choruses but The Monad Of Creation will create an eerie impression that lingers long after the album reaches its conclusion. Mournful Congregation - The Monad Of Creation recieves a score of 90/100 Killing Songs: The entire album, no song stands out as being distinctly better then any other

[BlutAusNerd]

Nice review.

[RelentlessOblivion]

thanks, I thought so too, think next I'll review an album I don't like and try to make it funny

[NTNR]

This album is very hard to get into. I bought it several years ago and still rarely listen to it. Their best stuff is probably their split with Worship and their split with Stabat Mater.

[BlutAusNerd]

I loved it from the very first time I listened to it. I got it in trade with Damon for our NTNR album, and it might actually be my favorite of theirs.

[NTNR]

The Dawning of Mournful Hymns is my fav.

[RelentlessOblivion]

How did I know you'd offer a dissenting opinion Mike? You're getting to be predictable and, as usual, you're wrong.

[NTNR]

From the mouths of babes.

[RelentlessOblivion]

on a serious note though isn't the way I wrote this review much better then how I'd been doing them before?

[NTNR]

on a serious note though isn't the way I wrote this review much better then how I'd been doing them before?

Of course you're getting better. You get a little better each time you write one. Not to say you wrote bad reviews before however.

[RelentlessOblivion]

my earliest reviews were pretty bad, when I started incorporating a rating system they got better (except the review of As Above, So Below) maybe I could become a semi-professional album reviewer