Band:	Mourners
Album:	Act I: Tragedies
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	April 2020

01. Apparitions
02. The Way Of Darkness
03. Souls Breathing Nothingness
04. Lost
05. Ansu Enthroned
06. Forms Of Delusion
07. Journey In Fear

For a guy who makes incredibly slow music, Daniel Neagoe really can't seem to sit still.

He has contributed to myriad projects as a full member and a guest collaborator, and he has led a fair few of his own; his credits for this year alone number too many for me to verify succinctly in the introduction to a review. While I've enjoyed his reliable work under the guises of Clouds, Bereft Of Light, and others, however, it is my humble opinion that Eye Of Solitude is one of the heaviest and most radiantly emotional bands in this world, the galaxy's slowest bolt of lightning in the bier-shaped bottle of funeral doom. Sure, there are longer songs out there, deeper growls, darker themes, but the second I hear Eye Of Solitude, I feel the blood slowing in my veins. No other band, through the power of a few chords, causes me to sigh with such fatigue.

Mourners describes itself as a continuation of Eye Of Solitude, but without being told I recognized this from the moment the very first chord stopped my pulse in its tracks. There's funeral doom, and then there's this vast, shapeless darkness, this agonizing cloud of writhing, primeval despair that bleeds distortion and crushing volume. Neagoe's other projects do have their own identities, and I wouldn't say that Mourners is a carbon copy of its predecessor, but it does retain my favorite qualities of Eye Of Solitude. Each time a new chord arrives, it lands with an earth-cleaving thunderclap; each note holds until it withers away not for the sake of being slow, but to make the listener feel the full breadth of each heart-rending tone. Neagoe's subterranean gutturals possess the the elemental force of the wind; not only is his tone simultaneously coarse and cavernous, but his phrasing and pronunciation are always brilliantly devised. Without hesitation I would call him one of my favorite harsh vocalists.

The compositions are ultimately somewhat simple, based on a few chords progressing at a glacial speed, but the sheer physical intensity of the performances, from the howling roars of pain to the brick-smashing percussion, transforms each slight change in pitch into a hope-crushing assault. The choice of those few chords and their execution can make all the difference for a funeral doom band, and Neagoe is experienced enough to intuit where next to launch his morbid cannonade of demoralizing sound. Organs, soft synths, delicate guitar lines, and some half-whispered narration ripple through the long nights of despair, adding little levity to the mood but some balance and necessary contrast to the heaviest passages. There are a few moments of death metal, a fast pace in a slow world, as well as some retreats into pure atmosphere, and the fully ambient track "Lost" separates the album's two concentrated chunks of funeral doom to allow the listener a short (futile) break.

Mourners seems to be where Daniel Neagoe is concentrating the greater part of his creative energies right now, or at least it seems that way from the perspective of my own musical preferences, and if Eye Of Solitude must die, then it is only appropriate for us to mourn. If you let it, this sound will swallow you and drag you down into its depths to dwell forever.

Why do we listen to music that fills us with darkness?