Sometimes as a reviewer you receive promos from all over the world and from places you’d never expected they had a metal scene there. This time I received a MCD from Mourners Lament, hailing from Chile. The line-up of Mourners Lament consists of members from other, to me unknown, well known Chilean metal bands: Mar De Grises, Poema Arcanus and Letal Solaris. Names I do have heard of are My Dying Bride and Anathema and that are amongst others the bands where Mourners Lament are influenced by.

Opening track ‘Suffocating Hopes’ immediately starts with music I expected after reading their bio. Heavy, slow, crushing metal with some nice deep and dark vocals. The death growls are occasionally alternated with spoken words and that’s a really good decision. The song keeps my attention for the whole 9 minutes and the music is perfect for busy times when you just think: “Fuck it all!” and lay down on your bed, dreaming away. The vocals in the title track are less convincing than its predecessor, but still the song creates a very nice atmosphere through the different melodic solo parts.

With ‘Sadness Cares’ the band succeeds to take 17 minutes of the listener’s time, while he or she won’t be noticing a thing. A non-Doom fan would easily be bored, but when you’re into it, you should definitely check these Chilean guys out! They’re not as good as the bands they’re influenced by, yet, but if they continue with making this kind of music they will be in the future.