Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
From eastern Connecticut comes the unique doom / modern metal of MOURN THE LIGHT and their newly-released ‘Weight Of The World‘ EP.
When I say unique, that’s exactly what I mean, and Dwayne Eldredge (guitar, vocals), Greg Gates (drums), Andrew Stachelek (lead vocals), and Jorge Vargas (bass), make this abundantly clear right out of the gate. In fact, look no further than the very first song here, “End Of Times“, to fully substantiate this fact.
Epic and uptempo from its start, the song rallies itself within a variety of stylistic and timing changes. Its upbeat, feel-good choruses are absolutely uplifting, they are then totally contrasted by the chugging, doomier heaviness delivered later in the song. A variety of vocal avenues are fully traversed, too, and you just cannot dislike this at all.
The doom metal side of things is more prevalent on the next cut, the “Weight Of The World” title track. Thick riffs, with dispatches of wailing solo licks, initiate the burn of the song’s starting segment. They soon meld with a bit of southern-tinged flare in their resonating emanations, while the vocals morph themselves through myriad changes. From the solid, soaring cleans to the aggro, black metallish shrieked ones and back, the vocals are a real highlight here.
We get a slab of mid-tempo power metal with the last song, “Embrace The Darkness“. More thick riffs are matched with powerfully reinforced rhythms for a barrage of forward-moving sonics. Certain points see their execution pulled back a bit for a slower advance of metallic grandiosity. Ultimately, the song, when taken in stride with its predecessors, is the perfect capstone to an amazing record.
MOURN THE LIGHT have made an incredible mark with the ‘Weight Of The World‘ EP – not only does it channel vibes of historical greats like, say Cirith Ungol or Solitude Aeturnus, but there are relative threads to acts like Hammers Of Misfortune, Abdullah, or Slough Feg, too.
Check out the stream here in today’s review or you can head directly over to Bandcamp [HERE] to stream / purchase MOURN THE LIGHT‘s ‘Weight Of The World‘ EP.
In related news, MOURN THE LIGHT will make their live stage debut at Strange Brew Pub in Norwich, CT on Sept. 1st. The incredible lineup set to perform includes LEADFOOT (with former C.O.C. vocalist Karl Agell), BONE CHURCH, BUZZARD CANYON, and THUNDERBIRD DIVINE! Here’s the INFO.
