Cairn

Portland local one-man-band Mizmor, known by his stage name A.L.N. (Is that supposed to stand for "Alan" or actually an acronym? I like to think his name is Alan) started touring earlier this year. Saw them with Fórn and Worm Ouroboros in January 2019 in brand new form. Now there's a West Coast Tour with the band Hell in support of this full-length Cairn. Mizmor is definitely on an upward trajectory! When I first became accustomed to Mizmors style I noted it might not be the best one for a live setting considering pretty much every song starts with ~2 minutes of ambient and lightly played music then either blasting you or a nice crescendo into the song. 3/4 song on the album follow suit, but "Cairn to Suicide" is the quickest to jump right in, in a style unusual to the act. It worked out just fine live. When the songs are this long, it’s nice to have a breather from the assault.

The comeback from the pause at 8:20 on "Cairn to God" or 1:40 on "The Narrowing Way" are the most distended example of his style. He'll let the space take over the song and overwhelm you before continuing on. This is a motif that is on every song which helped create a unique style all his own. It's prevalent in his other works, as well. Once the music stops or fades away the song will come back with some chugs then open up to a large cascade of sound and continue on. This particular style is a combination of black metal and doom. There’s plenty of melody to be found which lends itself towards the morose. The songs are catchy when you want it to be then slam and drag when it needs to be. It supplies multiple listens with entertainment.

There's a handful of some of the highest screeches from him that on the surface sound cheesy but when you don't focus on them they lift the songs uneasy and creepy vibe. His style is an open throated soaring rasp, otherwise that fits the mood of the overall music. I wouldn't say A.L.N. is a guitar virtuoso, but man can he write a depressing riff that's still interesting. Look at the guitar work in the first 3 minutes of "The Narrowing Way". That's a unique pattern and is so depressing. Whether it's meandering leads, crunching riffs, or devastating chords, it's all rather simple but hits the right vibe constantly. Also, this has some of the best as acoustic guitar I've heard in a while from any metal artist. Mostly clean or acoustic in metal means you just segment a chord. He actually hammers-on and pulls-of. Little bits of flair like that help appreciate that he's not just a metal guitarist playing clean guitar.

This is blackened doom so the bass is extremely important. Not like in technical death metal how it needs to be as impressive as the guitar following it's scale and whatnot. No, here it needs to be so incredibly heavy and that's exactly what we get. Maybe that says more to the sound engineer than the bassist, but it's enjoyable hearing the thunderous rumble crush these tracks. I do like how it can ring for what seems like an eternity.

It's some of his best work, but there has been heights reached that rival this albums best material. This is a hefty listen for those first experiencing his work. It's almost an hour in length with the average song length being well over 10 minutes. It is insanely heavy and sonically depressive with inklings of hope to keep you going. Welcome to the desert of absurdity.

Favorite tracks (all of them, but in order):
1. Desert of Absurdity
2. Cairn to Suicide
3. The Narrowing Way
4. Cairn to God

Technical Skill: 72% Origniality: 86% Song writing: 90% Production: 91%