Mourn

Gothic metal is one of the few unlucky styles of metal in which it had little resurgence or show any younger up and coming bands in recent years. There are many new bands I have heard, but none felt like it would be as awesome than the likes of Anathema and Type O Negative. Gothic metal is now riddled with cliches like symphonic elements in gothic metal, and of course the many female fronting bands with the beauty and the beast vocal approach. With the death of Peter Steele, to the many bands abandoning gothic metal, and of course some prominent bands of the genre had broken up or on hiatus led me to think that gothic metal has reached a decline in the 2010s. Don't get me started about the number of times I hear Motionless in White whenever I say "When you think of gothic metal, what is the first band you think of?" to people. However, I still search and search in hopes of looking for at least one or two bands that are keeping this genre of music alive. That is until I discovered a band called Invernoir through a doom metal style page on facebook. Invernoir is another band from Rome, Italy that has said that it is meant to bring back the roots of gothic and death-doom music like My Dying Bride, Anathema, Katatonia, Novembre, The Gathering, and Paradise Lost. Oh how this music they crafted is so magnificent, it was almost like listening to gothic metal again. It has similarities to the bands that I've mentioned earlier, but instead of sounding the same as the bands copying what each band represented, Invernoir meld those inspirations and made it into something that felt unreal. The band so far had only released this EP 'Mourn' at the time of writing this review, but among looking through their facebook page they are making new music. This implies they might be making their debut album or another EP. In the meantime, we have this mighty EP that is 'Mourn.'

The musical inspirations heard in 'Mourn', Invernoir combines the dark and depressing atmosphere of Katatonia, and Anathema with the death-doom heaviness of Paradise Lost, and My Dying Bride. The result of this showed passion and depression that felt unreal. The atmospheric sounds of the keyboards heard in the EP were empowering and depressing. It established the mood of the EP right away rather than building up to the general mood by the second song, in which most gothic metal bands have done. Invernoir does a great job with not overdoing the keyboards because it gives the listener more time to hear what the other instruments are doing. The guitar done on this EP was also magnificent, the way the lead guitar had parts that had depressing techniques, especially heard in 'Gold Kills Our Dreams' where it sounded very catchy and added a huge level of depression. The rhythm guitar and drums are also really great along with the majority of the EP's tempo. It helps give 'Mourn' a more death-doom take from what Paradise Lost has done during their early years. Also, the parts where it becomes more quiet and having only the guitar playing is a good way to bring in that simple depressing end to some of the songs. Overall, 'Mourn' made me not only appreciate the keyboards more, but also give mutual feelings towards the craftsmanship of the rhythms and the guitar that was done throughout the EP.

The vocals done in 'Mourn' is also fantastic that provides a good mix of melodic and aggressive tone. The EP doesn't have the typical baritone style voice heard in many gothic metal bands in the past and today, it was mainly tenor. The tenor style was a bold, but amazing way to include more clean vocals in metal music. The level of vocals gives 'Mourn' sensitivity and more mournful sounding music no pun intended. The growling heard in 'Mourn' also gives a more death-doom influence as well. Taking from Paradise Lost, the growling heard on this EP sounds great and deep and don't even sound cliche when you combine it with the fantastic musical structures that's heard in the EP. The whispering at the end of the EP is a good technique to sound depressing. I was liked the idea of using that form of vocal technique to sound more depressing. The performance done by Sami Kadi has been another great experience in 'Mourn' that it makes the EP sound diverse in terms of the overall mood and the level of depression that has been heard.

For some reason, I couldn't really find any lyrical themes to 'Mourn', and for that I can't really judge on how the lyrical themes of the EP are structured. If I do find any lyrics from the EP, I will edit this review and give out my overall verdict on how the lyrical themes are.

'Mourn' is close to being one of my all-time favorite EP I have ever heard, and has impressed me with what was lost in gothic metal that Invernoir brought back. While the title of the EP may sound cliche in a way, but Invernoir was able to bring back the roots of gothic metal and death-doom and combine their inspirations without any ounce of cliche. The EP hit me the same way the first time I heard Draconian for the first time, truly depressing and has a great level of atmosphere. I love when gothic metal bands combine the heaviness and aggression heard from death-doom elements, while still sounding dark, clean, and sensitive like Invernoir. Depending on how Invernoir's debut album would sound, I think that this band has dark future, and I mean dark as in a very positive way. Not only does this band sound fantastic, but Invernoir might be on its way to becoming the future of gothic metal.