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An odd release from the Aftermath label, usually an exclusive epicenter of Swedish Doom. In Mourning, despite their name, are not really a Doom band, though they utilize Doomy elements. This is their debut album, and it they have apparently evolved quite a bit from their original sound.

This is touted as "Progressive Doom/Death", but really, this is an individual kind of extreme metal. In Mourning play heavy, mixing up their tempos from slow to fast, changing time signatures and rhythms constantly. This isn't wanky or anything, and the heavy attack is actually pretty good, but the songs themselves lack focus, and don't really come together in a memorable way. I like this while it's playing, but afterward I can't remember what it sounded like. Really this is much more Death than Doom, with faster riffs and aggressive drumwork. The only really memorable song here is "The Black Lodge", which has a catchy main riff and a lot of melody, even if it's a very prog-metal kind of riff, almost alt-rockish. The guttural vocals are the only thing that makes this sound extreme, and when the clean vocals come in, we are suddenly in pure nu-metal land.

So here we have a band with a whole lot of talent, but they are clearly in a transition period and haven't quite settled on what they want to be. This disc is interesting, but I don't find it really compelling.