Tracklist:
- Colossus
- A Vow to Conquer the Ocean
- From a Tidal Sleep
- Celestial Tear
- Convergence
- Sirens
- Isle of Solace
- The Drowning Sun
- Voyage of a Wavering Mind
The Weight of Oceans is the third full-length album of Swedish
metalheads, In Mourning, and one which will undoubtedly maintain their
reputation as one of the sharpest, technically gifted, and adept bands in the
business. The deep, tightly woven
textures, cutting guitar melodies, and complex rhythms which brought their
previous releases so much acclaim are ever-present.
And now there’s more: melodious keys, strings, and synth all make cameo appearances, giving extra strength in depth to an already daunting array of musical talent. Beginning with the rich, melodic Colossus, the album runs through several weighty numbers before reaching the song, Celestial Tear – to my knowledge, the only track In Mourning have yet written to only feature clean vocals. The blistering tones of Convergence then give way to subdued melodies in the short, piano-based instrumental, Sirens. Isle of Solace and The Drowning Sun return the music to more familiar waters, before the music ends to the moody and desolate tones of the final track, Voyage of a Wavering Mind.
And now there’s more: melodious keys, strings, and synth all make cameo appearances, giving extra strength in depth to an already daunting array of musical talent. Beginning with the rich, melodic Colossus, the album runs through several weighty numbers before reaching the song, Celestial Tear – to my knowledge, the only track In Mourning have yet written to only feature clean vocals. The blistering tones of Convergence then give way to subdued melodies in the short, piano-based instrumental, Sirens. Isle of Solace and The Drowning Sun return the music to more familiar waters, before the music ends to the moody and desolate tones of the final track, Voyage of a Wavering Mind.
All good, you might say, but such general observations do
no justice to this record. The Weight
of Oceans is not just music: it is the sonic engineering of an apocalyptic
soundscape, illustrating an epic poem played out in deep and complex
lyrics. The band calls it a “conceptual
album”, and the cover image and lyrical references to a “coral giant” and “a
constellation of stars embodied” will have horror fans scrabbling for their
Lovecraft anthologies. Yet this is no
homage to the cthulhu mythos. Instead,
each song is used to weave the fabric of an original horror, which pitches
the elements in battle on a cosmic scale.
In the course of the first three tracks, the main protagonists of this
struggle are revealed. The first, the
ocean, is a dark, brooding mass. This is
the “Colossus” named in track 1, which reaches out to engulf all around it:
“Destined to swallow the shore, the depths split the surface/Raised its cold
hands to the sky to become controller of earth and wood.” And it forms the basis to the nightmarish
cthulhu-type monster featured in the album artwork: reaching to conquer land,
the waters are embodied in “the coral giant”.
Standing up to the dark waters is the sky, darkened by night, but
studded with stars. This places the
heavens in polar opposition to the oppressive darkness of the waters. While the latter seek to “swallow” all in
their path, a shining, starry sky offers clarity and truth: “…as red turns to
black/The night illuminates the path” (track 2).
The two enter a cosmic conflict, described in track 3 as
“a towering battle between the stars and the sea”. And so battle erupts between the elements. The sky unleashes rain – “the grieving
heaven” – and the sea responds with its own fury – “Storm bursts out from the
giant’s mouth”. A dark, brooding
monster waging war with its star-studded adversary. This is no ordinary storm.
And it is not fought out in isolation, as a third character, “the hunter”,
enters in track 3. This final
protagonist is brought into being by the violence of the storm – “A gathering
to summon the dark hunter” – and is the embodiment of the tempestuous spark,
“Bursting into flames” before reappearing, in track 5, again in the form of
lightning: “Light climbing down, embodying the hunter”. While this places the hunter in alliance
with the starry sky, against the dark seas, he is a largely passive character,
created by the struggle he witnesses.
Present with the storm, he plays no part, existing as a spirit-like
observer, as the last line of track 3 proclaims: “Face to face, the hunter
stared into the storm”. What he hunts
is clarity and wisdom amidst the oppressive depths of darkness. In Mourning have adopted strong, biblical
themes in their lyrics, which are dominated by themes of light and dark: the
oceans, brooding and surly (“and darkness covered the face of the deep...”);
the heavenly firmament, bringer of illumination (and therefore wisdom); and
finally, “the hunter”, an embodiment of sudden and brilliant insight, born of
the conflict between sea and sky, dark and light, good and evil.
All told, we’re a reptile and a piece of fruit away from
the story of genesis. But while this
clearly isn’t an album about the weather, I also don’t think it’s an
alternative retelling of the biblical creation myth, in the vein of Cradle of
Filth’s 2003 concept album, Damnation and a Day. Instead, In Mourning have constructed a poetic tapestry to tell
their own, original tragedy. This is a
personal tale, starting, in track 1, with “a dream”, which awakens dulled
senses, shaking the sleeping sky from its silence: “the spirits are awakening,
losing hours to the ghost/And then the rain, it came crashing down”. It’s a journey through the oppressive
darkness, it’s urges revealed in track 2: “Sail away, mind made up to conquer
the ocean”. This is the dreamer’s
attempt to escape from the oppressive atmosphere of the seas, whose dark,
festering ignorance he has come to question – “Years and years tangled in
affliction”. In doing so, he seeks
direction from the heavens, which offer up guidance and a vessel, despite their
own darkened state: “The day the sun forgot to shine, the stars carved
something out of the sky/A wooden gift to a haunted heart, for a distorted mind
the tide will turn”. This is not an
easy journey, however, and the slow melodies of the fourth track, Celestial
Tear, reveal the dreamer’s longing for reconciliation with the oppressive world
he has sought to break from: “If you were blind, if we were blind, could we
then have been much closer?”; and then, “If you were close, if we were close,
would we then have been much blinder?”
“If we were only memories from other times”, mourns the dreamer. If only.
As this “haunted heart” sets sail across stormy seas, “the
hunter”, revealed as flashes of lightning, comes to embody the ingenious spark
of clarity and wisdom the dreamer craves.
In track 5, the dreamer’s consciousness seeks to rouse him, demanding
“Wake up son, the storm is over”, before offering words of warning against
slipping back into the incomprehension he seeks to escape: “Don’t let yourself
slumber in the arms of the frail”. The
dreamer is urged open his mind, “With fire to open the eyes of the
hunter”. “Rise”, the chorus finishes,
calling on the dreamer for strength to escape his confines, “before you crumble
under the weight of oceans”. But the
dreamer cannot prevail. Track 6,
Sirens, is a sombre, instrumental tribute to the mythical temptress which lured
seafarers off course and onto rocks.
And when the lyrics return in track 7, Isle of Solace, they reveal a
shipwrecked voyager hauling himself onto dry land. “Slither ashore”, he is commanded, “on new found soil”. But the soil is no paradise, giving only
“illusionary shelter, an island in a dream of solace”. Weak and self-doubting, it cannot withstand
the grip of the dark oceans, from which “Arms shot like towers through the foam
and the waves/Surrounding and closing in, pulled under and torn deep”.
In track 8, the dreamer finds his quest ruined, “Stranded
again without memories, not knowing where, not knowing how”. His failure is the failure of light
everywhere, as the “ocean haunted mind” for the last time seeks inspiration
from above. “Tired eyes gaze to
abandoning skies”, where only “A faded star appears, hanging by the silent
horizon”. “And the sun fell from the
sky”, we are told; “left faith flickering in a nebulous end”. The dream has failed, all clarity and wisdom
extinguished: “Hope died”, mourns the poem, “the day the sun fell down”. Track 9, Voyage of a Wavering Mind,
concludes the dreamer’s lost cause, with a line for each for him, his guardian,
and his foe:
Misguided unredeemed, mortal
seeker of truth
Cold and
endless ocean, undefeated is this giant
Star
guider, a pathfinder cast into oblivion
These are extraordinarily subtle lines of poetry for
metal. But, not content with this, In
Mourning then turn their skills to musically illustrating their epic. And where others would have been tempted by
cheesy, swashbuckling sound effects, this band use only their trusted
instruments. The music enters with a
long synthetic drone (hints of a foghorn?), conjuring the image of still,
moonlit waters which then shimmer to the rapid strumming of high-pitched
guitars. Rippling guitars again summon
placid waters in the first bars of track 3, but stormy seas soon sweep the
listener into the melee. To the
irregular beats of a chugging bass, power chords, and the splashes of cymbals,
waves pummelling the sides of the dreamer’s vessel. Melodies similarly serve their symbolic purpose, bright,
high-pitched guitar riffs lighting up lyrical references to stars and fire,
while the mournful piano of Sirens beckons the desolate sailor to his doom. The only criticism that could be made is of the album's end. Having sailed through raging seas and howling winds, been driven onto rocks to clamber onto deserted islands, the final minutes of music meander towards an indistinct and uninspiring climax. But then, what could better depict the disappointment of a broken dream?
No less impressive is the band’s innovative use of
vocals. The most striking displays of
vocal flexibility may be the use of clean singing, a previously minor feature
of the music of In Mourning. However,
special mention has to be given to the interplay of the different tones of
traditional, death metal vocals, the distinct sounds of which are interwoven to
add further expression to the music. In
Mourning have two vocalists, both co-guitarists, Tobias Netzell and Björn
Petterson, and they use them very well.
Netzell puts in his shifts mainly with low-pitched grunts, while
Petterson provides rasping screams. And
the interplay between the two is nothing short of awesome: as A Vow to Conquer
the Ocean rages into life, low rumbling growls summon howling winds and
unfathomable depths, before the stars of the second verse shine down through
Petterson’s impassioned shrieks. In track
5, Convergence, another effect is achieved, as screams make their demands of
the dreamer (“Wake up son…”), accompanied by grunted warnings (“Don’t let
yourself slumber…”). The final line of
this sequence, both a warning and a demand, is shared between screams and
growls: “Rise before you crumble under the weight of oceans”.
Moulding their work around a hugely ambitious and original
epic poem, In Mourning have pulled out an absolute masterpiece, combining a
wide variety of musical styles with other sounds and effects that simply defy
classification. The best – perhaps the
only – way to really appreciate this album is to set aside a day with a stereo
and a full sheet of lyrics. Even so,
gaining a full understanding of The Weight of Oceans is a mighty tall
order. If you’ve managed to keep
patience with this review so far, you’ll notice it stopped being a review a long time ago, and became an essay.
But there remain so many more things that I could have said, and more
still that probably never occurred to me. And so, what of the album? In Mourning have certainly conquered their oceans; the question is, can we?
Production: 5/5
Lyrics: 5/5
Album Cohesion: 5/5
Music: 9/10
Percentage Score: 96/100
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