Band:	Mournful Congregation
Album:	The Incubus Of Karma
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	March 23, 2018
A review by:	Windrider

01. The Indwelling Ascent
02. Whispering Spiritscapes
03. The Rubaiyat
04. The Incubus Of Karma
05. Scripture Of Exaltation And Punishment
06. A Picture Of The Devouring Gloom Devouring The Spheres Of Being

"I wanna laaaaay you down on a bed of roses ...". I will eventually get banned for using this on a metal-related website. But seriously, that was the first thing that came to my mind when starting this review. It's not that Mournful Congregation is cheesy or anything like that, but their new opus The Incubus Of Karma feels as if someone places you on a warm and soft bed and you slowly sink deeper into the pillows and give in to your dreams.

This is funeral doom, so one knows what to expect: Nothing you will hear on the radio, nothing to power up your running skills, probably not even good for a car drive to work. But when it starts raining outside and you put your jacket on to get out and breathe some fresh air? this is the time for this album. Six songs for your listening pleasure, of which a whopping four last for 15 minutes or longer, make up for a great companion of any long and memorable walk. The music brings up highs and lows, sinking ever so deep into dark and dragging rhythms with exceptional vocals telling of hell and despair, while sometimes a guitar melody lifts up to fly over the fields of slumber.

The outstanding point on The Incubus Of Karma is probably the production which is a crucial factor in this genre. The drums are driven by the right amount of reverb, guitars and bass drive all frequencies down to where hell's gate begins. And the distortion is just god-like, yet leaving an impressive amount of clarity in the high frequencies when melodies come forward. The vocals complete the picture and play the role of both a supplement and at other times a counterpart to the riffing.

Mournful Congregation play in the highest league of funeral doom, which is shown by this album once again. If there is one thing that could have improved the record even more, however, that would be a slightly more frequent and pronounced use of (real) acoustic guitars, both as independent atmospheric interludes and also as an additional layer over the distortion hell. Apart from that I will happily listen to The Incubus Of Karma anytime the sky darkens and raindrops start falling from the sky. Or in the evening, slowly getting carried away to the land of dreams. A favorite track to always listen to again (if there is time) would be "A Picture Of The Devouring Gloom Devouring The Spheres Of Being".