Mourning Sun was released almost to the date 5 years ago and was quite the early X-mas gift that year for us mouth-breathing fan boys who had been waiting since 1996 when the lead singer released his solo effort “Zoon”. The album “Zoon” was a brutal mix of Slayeresque thrash and Industrial and came as quite a shock to those old fans, like myself, who expected a follow-up to 1990s beautiful and trance-inducing “Elizium”, in my humble opinion one of the best albums ever made. Consequently when I held “Mourning Sun” in my hands for the first time, they were trembling and slightly sweaty.
The disc opens with the instrumental (and very atmospheric) track “Shroud”(5:43). Listening to this song is like walking into a cathedral of sound. It is beautiful, majestic and awe-inspiring and sets the tone for the entire album.
Lead singer Carl McCoy is arguably one of the most frustrating people in the music business. He NEVER says anything substantial in his interviews, he works slooooooowly and seems content to release an album roughly every 6 to 9 years and whenever he makes a claim on his website about an imminent release it is invariably postponed. Case in point, a DVD of a 2008 gig in London was supposed to have been released in “early 2010” is now scheduled for “very early in 2011”. However, once Carl McCoy opens his mouth to sing, all is forgiven. His voice is nothing short of amazing. If you imagine re-animating Jim Morrison and having him sing about his existence in the next world, I think you get an approximation of his sound. In “Straight to the Light” McCoy sings as only he can and it’s great. The song is straightforward, fast, very powerful and features a chorus which burns its way into your brain.
The following track “New Gold Dawn” gets off to a somewhat slower start, but builds momentum and ends with a very satisfying climax. With the song“Requiem (Le Veilleur Silencieux) the listener is transported to a different world. The song is very simple, it features only keyboards, a guitar repeating the same pattern, a cymbal and McCoy’s godlike voice. While the song is calm the atmosphere is intense and it definitely the kind of song you want to listen to when you’re alone. You may want to sing along and/or twist your face in ecstasy After the relative calm of “Requiem” we get the storm of “Xiberia – seasons in the ice cage”. This song shows the same Industrial tendencies as the solo album “Zoon”, meaning that it is fast, loud and ugly in a good way.
The last two songs on the album “She” (9:26) and the title track (10.34) blend into one monolithic whole and is a good example of the classic Nephilim sound; slow, heavy, atmospheric and simply amazing. The drums pound, the guitars wail and McCoy sings, growls and whispers his way to a climax that will ruin you for others bands, at least for a while.
I am completely aware that this is very far from objective, so in order to ground myself, I should point on some of the flaws of this album. First of all, some, or most of the drums are programmed and while you can disguise that fact to some extent it does become apparent once in a while. Personally, I hate programmed drums, so this obviously brings the album down a notch, Secondly, the album includes a cover version of the song “In the year 2525” from 1969 written by psychedelic rock duo Zager &Evans. While the track is not bad it does not really belong with other songs and consequently you are forced out of your trance to turn off your stereo.
However, when all is said and done this album is one of those ten albums that will accompany me on a desert island.