Phonebook Eater
8/10
"The Weight Of Oceans" is the best In Mourning release so far.
In Mourning are a Swedish Melodic Death Metal band: “The Weight Of Oceans” is their third full length album, following 2010’s “Monolith”. Personally, that listen was not at all rewarding, and I wasn’t looking forward to further In Mourning material to listen to. But, as I saw that this new album was getting much more attention, I picked it up, and the band did a complete 180 for me.
There is a huge, massive improvement over that sophomore release; while that seemed to be a mere Melodeath album with not much boldness nor originality accompanying it, “The Weight Of Oceans” has both of those characteristics in great abundance. There is also a broader palette of influences that can be heard, of different kinds of metal, from Gothic, to Doom, to Progressive Metal. The band is still pretty much fixed on Melodic Death Metal, but it seems that this time around, they’re appreciating a wider amount of music. The grand majority of riffs they compose and bring up are extremely catchy: In Mourning also structure their songs very cleverly, in a way similar to Prog Metal (at this point, Opeth is in fact another obvious influence, not only strictly musically speaking, but also when it comes to assembling the flow of one track). With cleverness and catchiness mixed so well together, we get nine, mammoth tracks that are hard to forget.
Boasting a terrific flow, (although one small letdown for me is the fact that the songs are some times too close to each other, without omitting that gap of air that can be essential for the listener to take a deep breath before plunging into the next track) In Mourning throw at the listener a handful of amazingly fresh, memorable tracks, starting from “Colossus”, the opening act: running for nine minutes, this track is a perfect gathering of great riffs and moods, fused together appropriately and ordered in a way that keeps the listener attentive constantly. The second track, “A Vow to Conquer The Queen”, is driven in mainly one direction, but it goes straight up that path without hesitating: it’s completely condensed into heaviness and technicality, without not being unique sounding. “Celestial Tears” is a wonderfully melancholic, somber, atmospheric semi-ballad, while the track following that is possibly the best of the entire album, “Convergence”, which includes a Doomy-rhythmed passages in its core, and is surrounded by a relatively virtuous Death Metal feel, mixed with some evident Prog Metal influences. The band goes so far to even sound sludgy at times, with the final track “Voyage Of a Wavering Mind”, where even Post Metal brushes can be heard in the background.
“The Weight Of Oceans” is an epic collection of tracks that have an equal amount of muscles and brains. The wide and eclectic range of influences prove how In Mourning like to experiment with their Death Metal, creating a beast that is theirs only. A possible candidate for Death Metal album of the year.