Mesmur - Terrene (CD)

Review
Metal Wani
9.5/10

There is a tragic beauty in sorrow and grief, and all stories ultimately end in both. Neither can be avoided, all that can be done is to come to grips with them and find your way through life. There is beauty because there is beauty in life and its frailty; to feel sorrow and grief means to live a life that has had love; and to have that is to have a life worth living. It is in embracing and sharing the strange beauty of sorrow that the funeral doom genre finds its home. And the multinational band Mesmur has tapped into the essence of this with their new album ‘Terrene.’

Two years ago I reviewed their last album, ‘S’, which was a Lovecraftian look into the endless void of space. This new album finds the band firmly back on Earth, and with that a more human, and thus more a more sorrowful and beautiful, album has been created. Funeral doom often comes in two forms, the type this album is, and the type that seeks to suffocate the listener with despair and misery. I find more value in the type explored on this album. The band is made up of four members who have never met one another, from different parts of the world, Jeremy L – Guitars, and Synth, Michele M – Bass, John D – Drums, and vocalist Chris G. The lyrics are handled by both the vocalist and guitarist. As the album consists of only four songs, I’ll hit on each one.

The album begins with the longest track, “Terra Ishtar,” which clocks in at nearly 17 minutes in length. Ishtar was a Babylonian goddess who came into popularity around 4000 B.C., Babylonian mythology is hardly a point of knowledge of mine, so I can say little more that would be of value regarding the title. The music starts quietly with waves of synthesizers, before the slow heavy crush that funeral doom is known for comes in. After a slow buildup the deep, almost hollow, growls come in. Lyrically it deals much of sorrow and impending doom, in part built on the mythology, but they also work perfectly well as themes for normal life. The band takes advantage of the full amount of time, both by speeding up sections (it IS still funeral doom however, so we’re not talking hyper speed), but also slowing the music down even more. Besides the usual instruments, guitar, bass, and drums, a sampled mellotron effect on the synths are used extensively. Best known for their use in late 60s and early 70s progressive rock, there is a timeless quality and uniqueness to a mellotron that I absolutely love, so am perhaps a bit bias in my enjoyment of their inclusion throughout the album. A very prominent section of key use comes halfway through, when the metal stops entirely and we’re treated to a minute of so of quiet washes of keyboards, which double for strings. The effect is quite realistic, the result is sublimely beautiful, and one of my favorite moments on the album.

This is followed by “Babylon” which continues with the middle eastern themes explored throughout the disk. Once again the slowly crushing metal is augmented by quieter passages, including some guest flute by Don Zaros of funeral doom legends Evoken. The shortest track on the album, while not as sprawling, it remains effective in its pacing and use of dynamics.

The guest list continues on the following track “Eschaton” which features cellist Nadia Avanesova. This track wastes no time getting heavy from the very beginning, and the cello doesn’t wait for a quiet moment to begin, instead joining the slowly crushing guitars and bass. The result is a very effective combination of beauty and brutality, mirroring the lyrics which deal with the collapse and destruction of society and the world as we know it. At around the 7 minute mark the music changes and mirrors the sounds of sirens, or airhorns, as would be heard for an air raid or most apocalyptic scenario. This bleeds directly into a quiet section highlighting the cello and the spoken word vocals of Chris. The result is a haunting and achingly beautiful requiem for a dying world, suffering the wrath of a vengeful God, before the mayhem and heaviness comes back. The switch in sound simply serves to make the heaviness more effective.

The album closes with “Caverns Of Edimmu.” Edimmu are, according to my fairly brief reading, a type of vengeful demon or ghost in the ancient Summarian religion. I will admit, I don’t find the connection between this and the lyrics to be very clear, as they read more as a general account of punishment and hellish afterlife. They are effective, however, and the deliberate hollow nature of the vocals serve to remind one of a final reckoning in an eldritch abyss deep underground. The keys and mellotron once more make themselves known, and the deep bass and quicker handwork of the drums adds a sense of urgency as the song progresses. The guitar work, while, like much of the album, focuses on riffs, remains at times slightly floating above the rest, and small subtle bits of cleaner guitar can be heard, which adds more to the atmosphere of the whole. The instrumentation comes together to grieve at the end, and closes things out in a highly satisfactory manner.

Mesmur has managed to create an album of both crushing agony, and sublime beauty, of deep melancholy and sorrow. ‘Terrene’ is firmly planted on earth and frail humanity, and our shared experiences of sadness and grief. This type of funeral doom reminds me of a heavy blanket; it pushes firmly down on the listener, but there is comfort and security in it, comfort of a common understanding, and humanity. It is a work that fans of this lonely subgenre should take note of. Highly recommended.

Author: Jonathon Rose

Review
The Grim Tower
8/10
12.11.2019

Mesmur have always created the kind of doom/death metal that sounds otherworldly, rather than grim and morose and I’ve championed that. There are enough Saturnus clones out there as it is and it’s good to see an artist lifting me up and throwing me into a strange world that builds with every piece on the album. In this case, there are four of those, which is more than enough when you consider the fact that all of these tracks pass the ten-minute mark. Opener “Terra Ishtar” encroaches to nearly twenty and I’m sure that if given more time, that might have just happened. Synths are a huge part of the act, as they build the universe we explore within these four movements, which I will briefly demonstrate.

The album begins with “Terra Ishtar” as I stated before, though it come with a spectral resonance, as it were. If you’ve ever seen a Nova documentary, I could describe the effect here as similar. It does no remain that way though, as thundering doom riffs and an a veritable feeling of unease makes itself present further into the listen. The vocal filter effect that I’m noticing here also bring sort of a cavernous feeling to the mix, which makes that part of this disc seem like it has been made up of transmissions from a being who may very well be trapped on one of these alien worlds that are being sonically described through the music. “Babylon” continues that feeling, though actually does enter slightly darker territory than the band’s previous recording. Orchestral sections do manage to make a statement here, though it is too minute to be understood and is largely forgotten up until the end of the piece. The same might be said of “Eschaton” which seems to murk about in the already grimy territory laid by “Babylon.” Obviously, this is a very different kind of album and seems to press hard on the doom elements, making for what can certainly be a frightening, yet enthralling performance. “Caverns Of Edimmu” brings in more synth action, adding to the dreary orchestral compositions laden within. Towards the end of the cut, they almost feel a bit proggy and actually seem to work in the band’s favor.

Ultimately, there’s quite a bit to like here as no one does it quite like Mesmur when it comes to exponentially atmospheric doom/death. Though Terrene is more gloomy than the band’s previous effort, it still remains true to what makes the band stand out and I’d recommend taking this journey in whatever form you desire, just so long as it is in a place where you’ll not be bothered. It is a very immersive experience that feels like the the death knell of an alien world that we can only grasp partially, in short musical glimpses. There is a very good chance that Terrene is referring to our planet and it’s downfall, but I doubt we are the only world that has seen great turmoil and eventual collapse.

Author: The Grim Lord

Review
Head-Banger Reviews
26.10.2019

There’s something about the unfathomable heaviness of funeral doom that will always allure me to its depths. Whether it’s simply the heaviness itself or the cavernous deeps with which is effortlessly carves out with every band that utilizes it, I’ll never know as I just find immense joy at falling into its reaches. Mesmur was one of the first bands that I heard of the style when I first started to foray into the unforgiving realm of funeral doom, and it’s with their follow-up that they stay very much in line with their last record but with a few tweaks here and there to show us that they have certainly improved as a unit.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing people who aren’t familiar with the style start to complain when they see an album of the style has “only” four tracks to call its own without even seeing the godly length of each of the songs that show where the style really shines when put together with everything else. Mesmur holds true to such a staple of funeral doom with only four songs that “Terrene” claims, and it’s with the same impressive stretches that each song takes over that we see this band work the magic that they’ve been honing for a good few years now. There isn’t much with the reaches of this album that can be considered wildly different from what we’ve seen in the style before, but where Mesmur doesn’t display a whole lot of change they, instead, display a grand understanding of the style such that it wouldn’t be far off to consider their grip over the style close to that of masters. Each of the tracks are as wide as they are deep, heavy as they are toxic in nature, monolithic as they are gripping, and as grand as they are punishing! Mesmur hit every nail right on the head when crafting “Terrene” as it hits all the vital notes that a funeral doom work should, and they provide the overall quality of this album is absolute heaps that just keep on giving until that final note!

I still hold true to the idea that I don’t listen to as much funeral doom as I would like, and it’s because of bands like Mesmur that I’ll always find myself crawling back to the style because of how truly exquisite the style can become when put in the right hands. Each moment of “Terrene” seems catered for every fan of the style, and I will definitely be returning to this work time and again because there’s some dark magic at work here that makes what’s on display nigh on irresistible.