Band:	Mother
Album:	II
Style:	Black metal, Post-metal
Release date:	October 25, 2024
A review by:	musclassia

01. II

While it certainly isn’t the most convenient entity to try and review, there’s a certain elegance to the simplicity of a single-song album: no song titles or subdivisions to compartmentalize one’s opinions of the overarching whole with, just one big maelstrom of sound to try and encompass with words.

II is Mother’s first release of this kind, although debut album I was also written as a single song, albeit one they subsequently decided to separate into chapters. This new release acts as a direct sequel to its predecessor conceptually, and the pair are intended to be experienced together. Still, II is fully functional as a standalone entity, one that throws listeners right into the mixer, sonically and emotionally.

The Belgian trio’s style falls quite squarely into the ‘post-black’ niche, including having very occasional flirtations with blackgaze and post-hardcore, just as many acts falling under this umbrella are prone to. The opening onslaught on the record is rawer and more abrasive than either style, however, featuring tortured shrieks, frantic blasting and sharp tremolo distortion. There are brief moments of quite respite, but the first few minutes doesn’t really have any notable shift in tone or intensity outside of these temporary pauses, only seeing the tremolos rise from punishing low-end to higher, sharper pitches.

While it’s an opening that is sure to immediately capture one’s attention, it’s one that would be unsustainable across such an engorged runtime, and it is therefore unsurprising when the song begins to weave lighter and more melodic textures and motifs into the song-album’s framework. It is rare that the album undergoes dramatic shifts, however; simple relentless tremolos may evolve into more concrete and hook-laden riffs, but still with a fierce aggression maintained, while warmer moments that take the music in the direction of blackgaze are rare and worked towards patiently. There’s also the whole ‘post-‘ part of the equation to consider, and Mother take a page out of compatriots Amenra’s book with the sequences of muted instrumentation and hushed, almost-spoken singing.

Where this song shines brightest for me is in the strength of some of its riffs; there are several emphatic post-black riffs during II’s runtime that are truly juicy, including one around the 15-minute mark that is dwelled upon for some time to fully maximize its impact. Additionally, while much of the album is fairly frenetic with its pacing, the steadier, heavier sequences are not only equally well executed, but arguably more impactful. The third quarter of the song-album lingers more in this slower, moodier approach, and a gradual fadeout heading into the final 10 minutes of II again does a good job of capturing the feel of Amenra at their more spiritual.

The question that will likely arise for most people who aren’t dedicated to the concept behind the album is: ‘does this need to be one single, super-long song?’ The answer, for me, is that it probably could have been divided up; there are notable lulls that feel like segues between significant sections, and I don’t recall picking up on any obvious motifs that make all the constituent sections sound intrinsically tied to one another. At the same time, between the lack of obvious starts or ends between passages and the overarching similarity in tone and atmosphere, “II” is clearly written as part of a single, cohesive experience, and while packaging the album in this manner does effectively make it mandatory to experience the music within II in the way that Mother desires, it does ultimately pay off, as the final, climactic onslaught of cutting, hook-laden black metal feels that bit more impactful for representing the conclusion of a long and immersive journey.