Band:	Mourning Beloveth
Album:	A Murderous Circus
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	March 29, 2005
A review by:	Jeff

01. The Apocalypse Machine
02. Elemental Nausea
03. The Crashing Wave
04. Nothing (The March Of Death)
05. ?Yet Everything
06. Part 1 [Limited Digipak bonus]
07. "Unnamed" [Limited Digipak bonus]

"A Murderous Circus", lord I was expecting a new album from the Magisterial Mourning Beloveth, masters of the masters of Doom Metal since 2002 the year of the release of their great 2nd album "The Sullen Sulcus", but also the year of a musical revelation for me. These three years have been really long, but finally thank you my lord we have it. I have in my hands their new release, which is as always with this band, something that all Doom metal lovers wish in their deepest beings. My friends I know that those who already know of Mourning Beloveth don't need any more words about them, but I also know that a lot of you don't know them yet and should discover them. This new album can be a perfect introduction to this beautiful and depressive magical world which comes from Mourning Beloveth.

We are lucky because once more Mourning Beloveth did something amazing if only you like Doom Metal. I like this music and bands like Mourning Beloveth are certainly one of the reasons that make that the more I listen to it the more I love it. "A Murderous Circus" their new album follows the rule of the style and follows the way of their two previous albums, "Dust", and "The Sullen Sulcus", in two words a beautiful and touching Doom/Death Metal.
The music of the band is simple and really complex. Simple with its insistent riffs and brutal passages with a strong and aggressive voice, but also with melodic breaks with the very nice and beautiful clean voice of Frank, the guitarist. Complex because the songs are tortured and really long (with an average of 15mins for every songs), and you will have to listen to this album several time to hear all the little technical changes of the drums, bass, and the guitars. That's really amazing to see that a band can produce music so disturbing in reason of its quality. I can't deny that I like Mourning Beloveth because of these points and alternating between the soft passages that gives me shivers and the "brutal" ones who reveal the pain in the music of the band are just amazing. If you like Doom metal and if you have good musical tastes no doubt that you'll fall in love with the music of one of the best Doom Metal band of the scene.

Don't worry the five songs are all very expressive I mean that they all have the same Doom/Death basis, and even if they are all linked they are also really independent and different with some great melodies that we can only find with Mourning Beloveth. I'm sure that I don't have to talk about the lyrics that again give me the feeling that we are in front of great musicians and equally great writers. The sad and dark ambiance that the band always produces is here and for sure if you like them or if you only want to discover a new Doom Metal killer that's a must (like their two others albums).

The artwork is also splendid. The digipack comes with two bonuses in addition but the production that is not bad is also not perfect and it can be disturbing. Don't worry this is only a real tiny detail and the general quality of the CD removes this little negativity. As you can understand I like this album and every Doom Metal fan will certainly agree with my opinion, "A Murderous Circus" is a great album.

Wow, what a great release one more time even if some of you will say that the other two albums are maybe a bit better I don't really agree actually. "A Murderous Circus" is just a bit different and maybe a bit more accessible but this is a great release of a Doom Metal album and a must for all those who like this music. I hope that the ones who don't know this band yet will buy this album just to see that they are missing one of the greatest bands in Doom Metal history. Buy this album guys and gals or be damned by the legions of Doom.