MOURNFUL CONGREGATION — The Monad of Creation (review)

MOURNFUL CONGREGATION — The Monad of Creation album cover Album · 2005 · Funeral Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Wilytank
Even though they've only released a few albums, Mournful Congregation have received a nice amount of funeral doom fandom. They've actually been around for a while, but have taken some time to actually get some albums out. 'The Monad of Creation' is my first album by this band that I've listened to.

It's a very interesting mixture to be sure. The atmosphere generated by the music here. Melodic lead guitars are abundant and there are also elements of background clean vocals, acoustic guitars, and keyboards (especially on the final track). There's also some skillful use of key changes in this album to fully take advantage of variation. "Mother - Water, the Great Sea Wept" is an excellent example of this with it changing from a lower mournful tone to a slightly lighter tone and back again. At one point in the song, there's also a point where the tempo picks up and becomes like an October Tide song. In fact, those of you familiar with October Tide may find other similarities with this album. I myself find it similar to a funeral doom version of the atmospheric death doom of 'Rain Without End'.

The first of the shorter songs on this album, "As I Drown In Loveless Rain", presents one of the bigger let-downs of the album: parts of the atmosphere are weaker resulting in more boring elements to some of the songs. This is mostly attributed to the melodic lead guitar in this particular song getting kinda monotonous. There are other elements to help counterbalance this however like vocals that are almost whisper like in places in this song. The other shorter song, "When the Weeping Dawn Beheld Its Mortal Thirst", is entirely acoustic. It's a nice change of things, but the final track is made twice as refreshing as a result.

Though not containing some of the desired elements to make 'The Monad of Creation' a major masterpiece of funeral doom, it still is very noteworthy of an album and definitely a worthwhile listen for fans of the genre. As I am still new to the band, I definitely will check out their other releases to check on their musical progression.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rot Stink Rip Death Metal
TOMBSTONER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Shining - Inga Broar Kvar Att Bränna
SHINING
UMUR· 14 hours ago
Shining - Jag Är Din Fiende (official premiere)
SHINING
UMUR· 14 hours ago
SHINING - Avsändare Okänd (Official Lyric Video) | Napalm Records
SHINING
UMUR· 14 hours ago
Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 6 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 6 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed