MOURNFUL CONGREGATION — The Monad of Creation (review)

MOURNFUL CONGREGATION — The Monad of Creation album cover Album · 2005 · Funeral Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Wilytank
Even though they've only released a few albums, Mournful Congregation have received a nice amount of funeral doom fandom. They've actually been around for a while, but have taken some time to actually get some albums out. 'The Monad of Creation' is my first album by this band that I've listened to.

It's a very interesting mixture to be sure. The atmosphere generated by the music here. Melodic lead guitars are abundant and there are also elements of background clean vocals, acoustic guitars, and keyboards (especially on the final track). There's also some skillful use of key changes in this album to fully take advantage of variation. "Mother - Water, the Great Sea Wept" is an excellent example of this with it changing from a lower mournful tone to a slightly lighter tone and back again. At one point in the song, there's also a point where the tempo picks up and becomes like an October Tide song. In fact, those of you familiar with October Tide may find other similarities with this album. I myself find it similar to a funeral doom version of the atmospheric death doom of 'Rain Without End'.

The first of the shorter songs on this album, "As I Drown In Loveless Rain", presents one of the bigger let-downs of the album: parts of the atmosphere are weaker resulting in more boring elements to some of the songs. This is mostly attributed to the melodic lead guitar in this particular song getting kinda monotonous. There are other elements to help counterbalance this however like vocals that are almost whisper like in places in this song. The other shorter song, "When the Weeping Dawn Beheld Its Mortal Thirst", is entirely acoustic. It's a nice change of things, but the final track is made twice as refreshing as a result.

Though not containing some of the desired elements to make 'The Monad of Creation' a major masterpiece of funeral doom, it still is very noteworthy of an album and definitely a worthwhile listen for fans of the genre. As I am still new to the band, I definitely will check out their other releases to check on their musical progression.
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