Mournful Gust - The Frankness Eve (CD)

Review
Sputnikmusic

My initial thoughts of Mournful Gust´s The Frankness Eve were rather dubious. Naturally, having low expectations coming into the album may have influenced my afterthoughts, but I was duly impressed by what the death/doom band had to offer. Very much abiding by every cliche in the sub-genre´s book, the band still manages to keep a sense of individuality from amongst their peers. Nevertheless, as much as it starts off strongly, the album dips in quality in particular instances, seemingly becoming repetitive towards the second half. This is not so much a result of the band´s songwriting, which is far from bland, rather a slight excess of a good thing; the album drags on longer than it should.

Beginning with "A Pain to Remember", Mournful Gust make no mistakes. One of the better tracks on the album, the song immediately introduces us to vocalist Vladislav Shahin, the star of the show. As the song opens, Shahin lets loose a low growl, which sits very comfortably with the backing melody; an all too common thing on the album, and a significant factor behind its success. Furthermore, unlike other death/doom bands that rely on good gutturals to take our attention off terribly weak singing, Mournful Gust take pride in Shahin´s singing abilities. "It´s Our Own Tragedy", entirely void of growls, shows off Shahin´s grasp over his voice. Deep and sonorous, his voice has a commanding presence, making a fantastic song out of a musically weak track. This interplay between his growls and singing continues throughout the album, and provides for an enticing experience.

Mournful Gust rarely stray from the sound that they establish with "A Pain to Remember". Although becoming somewhat formulaic, the band sticks to it and do the best they can with what they have. In terms of songwriting, the band does not excel as much as one would hope; nevertheless, there is a feeling of authenticity emanating from the sextet. This can be seen through the various melodies that are found on the album; hailing from Ukraine, the band have allowed the influence of their home country´s traditional music to seep into The Frankness Eve. It remains subtle, yet gives the album an edge that makes it all the more appealing.

There is an inherent smoothness about Mournful Gust´s music; the production is lush, and the use of layered synths gives it a very uniform fluidity, only matched by the very best of death/doom. This comes with a downside however, in the fact that although being a consistent album, there were no moments which really sat me on my arse. Moments of brutality on Inborn Suffering´s Wordless Hope, or a desolate melody on Mourning Beloveth´s The Sullen Sulcus gave these albums an exciting touch, and kept me coming back for more. The Frankness Eve is relatively tame in comparison, but still manages to hold its own. For fans of Hanging Garden, Inborn Suffering and DOOM:VS.

Review
Femforgacs'magazine
9/10

A Mournful Gust tortenete kozel 10 evre nyulik vissza, az ukran csapat ket masik romajin alakult nehany tag reinkarnacioja altal. Nem nevezhetoek kimondottan aktivnak, a 99-es bemutatkozo nagylemezuk ota csak egy EP szuletett, mely cimevel, a rajta szereplo dalokkal es kulsosegeinek koncepciojaval is egyezik jelen kritika targyaval, vagyis a The Frankness Eve-vel. Lassuk akkor, mivel tortek meg a 8 eves urt, milyen tortenet adnak elo az oszinteseg ejszakajan...

Mindenfele intro es egyeb sallang nelkul csapnak bele a hurokba a nyito A Pain to Remember cimu notaban. Az elso hangokbol mar tudni lehet, a megtevesztoen gotikus borito bizony csak hamis eloitelet: a zenekar doom/death metalt jatszik, afele My Dying Bride-os vonalon. Hegedu nincs, az enek javareszt horgos, a dalokat a melyre hangolt gitarok viszik. A szintetizator leginkabb az atvezeto reszeknel kerul elo, illetve nehany hattertemaval kellemes progressziv izt ad a zenenek. Az enek angol nyelvu, a halalrol, keserusegrol szolo szovegeket olvasgatva az igenyesen osszehozott, vastag bookletben az emberben bizony felmerul a gondolat, hogy nem a dal szuletesnapjara utal a 2006. junius 28-ai datum az A Pain to Remember szamcim alatt...

A dalszerkesztes is profi, kellokeppen valtozatosak, izgalmasak a szerzemenyek, fogosak a dallamok, konnyen bevesik magukat az ember emlekezetebe. Bar az alap gitartemak vegigkiserik a dalokat, a zene megis megunhatatlanul valtozatos, a visszatero, ismetlodo reszeket megtorik valamilyen uj zenei elemmel. A fentebb emlitett horgos eneken kivul Vladislav Shahin tiszta eneket is hasznal, mely pl. a With Every Suffering dalban epikus kontost is ad. Nehol elokerul egy fuvola, egy szintetizator felvezeto, vagy egy akusztikus resz, mint a The Cold Solitude elejen is, velemenyem szerint a legerosebb szerzemeny a lemezen.

Bar van nehany laposabb resz a bo 50 percben, es ezert nem kapott maximalis pontot, osszessegeben nagyon kellemes meglepetes az ukranok anyaga, batran ajanlom a hangulatos szorongas minden kedvelojenek.

Review
DoomsterManiac

Second work of this band formed by members from Autumnia. This album is a great work with excellent melodies. The atmosphere is melancholy and sorrow. They use keyboards, flutes and violin. The riffs are melodic with some guitar solos. The vocals are powerful grunts and melancholic clean voice.

Recommended!

Review
Payo UG Webzine
6.5/10

MOURNFUL GUST patri ke stale popularnejsi vlne melodickeho doom/death metalu, kdy se veskrze kazda z onech kapel odvolava na adresu MY DYING BRIDE, WARNING, ANATHEMA ci MOURNING BELOVETH. Ti, jenz doom metal poslouchaji dele, nez jen kratkou chvili, dobre vedi, ze doom je jakysi zapomenuty romanticky styl, ktery neni jen o sklesle atmosfere, podlazenych kytarach, pomalem rifovani, nybrz o hloubce tvurci inspirace, textovych temat a vsemozne spouste dalsich adekvatnich postupu, ktere tak davaji moznost vyniknout doomove melancholicke podstate, se kterou se o slovo hlasi na svem druhem studiovem albu take zkuseni Ukrajinci MOURNFUL GUST, jenz v letosnim roce oslavi sve desate vyroci od vzniku. Kapela sve druhe album nazvala stejne jako predesle EP, ze ktereho si vzala rovnou vsechny ctyri skladby (1-4), a tak si sami kupeckymi pocty spocitate, o kolika novych vecech se tu tedy bude mluvit. Jednoznacnym kladem ve standardni produkci MOURNFUL GUST je hojne vyuziti klavesoveho vrstveni, ktere tak prileva do hrnku s nepropustnou cernou kavou, kterou nepropadne ani lzicka, a bezpochyby take spoluprace s rozlicnymi nastroji - harfa, fletny, lyra, kterych neni ve vysledku vubec malo. Za zminku stoji take zensky zpev - "From Illusions & Jealousy", ktereho je tu jako safranu, avsak o to vice citim jakehosi zadostiucineni vuci tomuto zenskemu elementu, jenz je svym obsahem pouze kapkou v mori. Dokonce v zaverecne skladbe alba "Recover Me In Sores" je hojne vyuzit take zensky sborovy doprovod, z nehoz mam opravdu radost. Avsak co me ani trochu neuspokojuje je snad jen zpev, ktery svym rozsahem spada do jakehosi sedeho prumeru, kdy pres sebe jednotlive polohy prepadaji asi tak jako duchodci ve fronte na duchod. Vladislav svoji hlasovou indispozici, jenz se odrazi predevsim v jeho cistych polohach, casto strida revem - pri kterem prebiha dokonce i mraz po zadech, ktery mu sedi opravdu lepe, ba dokonce i samotne texty s jakousi formou hlubsiho poslani vyznivaji o poznani lepe a adekvatneji. Samotnou tematikou vsak texty nejevi zadnou snahu dostat se pryc z onoho dokola omyvaneho kolobehu drogove zavislosti, smutku, nenaplnene lasky apod. Jak rekl Markus Ulrich (LANFEAR): "Texty jsou velice dulezite, ale je problem, ze je nikdo necte!" O samotnych instrumentalnich elementech, jenz MOURNFUL GUST ve finalni podobe inspiruji, nelze mluvit jako o jednoucelovych, a to predevsim proto, ze kapela cerpa jak z dilny nezamenitelnych MY DYING BRIDE, ale take DRACONIAN, jenz dobre vedi, ze doom metal neni pouze o chladne atmosfere, a prekrasne zpevacce s uhrancivym pohledem a do poloviny rozepnutym korzetem. MOURNFUL GUST si jsou tohoto faktu rovnez vedomi, avsak vyjma nekolika svetlych okamziku, ze kterych na cele care vynika uvodni "A Pain to Rememeber", je tato v poradi druha deska jen jakymsi odrazovym mustkem, ktery se nachazi tak nejak uprostred - ani vysoko, ani nizko. A tak zda-li jste zastanci zlate stredni cesty, bude vam ona deska chutnat se vsim vsudy!

Review
RockUnderground
8/10

O Mournful Gust, e um conhecido grupo ucraniano e esta de volta com um novo album apos oito meses parados! O album debut foi lancado no ano 2000 e foi relancado em CD em 2005 pela Soyuz/Metal Agen. Atualmente o grupo voltou com novo material, combinando generos como Gothic Metal, Death, Doom e elementos da musica Folk europeia. As melodias sao preenchidas com gravacoes de flautas. A voz da vocalista (conhecida pelo seu trabalho no Autumnia) transmite uma rica variedade de sentimentos e experiencias que foram registradas em letras em ingles, passando dos vocais limpos ate os guturais. Isso e o que diz o release do gruo. Os press reelases geralmente sao um tanto, assaz, exagerados, mas desta vez foram certeiros em descrever a banda. A banda nasceu a partir de duas bandas anteriores dos membros, a banda de black metal Vae Solis e a banda de doom death metal Temple Of Oblivion, ate que em 1999 surge a Mournful Gust. Finalmente em 2008 a banda volta com um album completo, com um encarte de 24 paginas. Aqui temos uma banda madura e este grande disco tem destaques em It's Our Own Tragedy, To Your Deceits...Again, From Illusions And Jealousy e Honey For My Wounds. Sombrio, gelido e arrepiante.