ALBUM REVIEW: A Reminder Of The Wound Unhealed – A Mourning Star
Has any band made a bad one of these yet? A MOURNING STAR play a particularly 90s-minded style of metalcore in much the same vein as that of their peers like YOUR SPIRIT DIES and XDELIVERANCEX and MEMENTO. and BALMORA and ADRIENNE and indeed most of the bands on their old label home of The Coming Strife and their new one of DAZE. But even if you feel as though you might’ve had your fill of this sort of thing in recent years you should still absolutely find room for the Canadians’ debut full-length A Reminder Of The Wound Unhealed, which goes down like a dessert to that special second stomach your nan is always going on about.
So you probably have a good idea of what to expect here; this is windswept, emotionally fraught, old school melodic metalcore, with riffs borrowed liberally from the glorious city of Gothenburg and breakdowns that always hit their mark no matter how far out you can see them coming from (check out that of Would It Be Easier If My Flesh Tangled Through This Blade for one of the finest examples of this found in both the album and indeed the whole year). It’s UNDYING and ARKANGEL and POISON THE WELL and 7 ANGELS 7 PLAGUES and even a bit of early KILLSWITCH and dammit if that’s not enough for you maybe it’s time you sought professional help.
The record itself is quite clearly divided into two halves, the first comprising six completely new tracks and realistically showing the very best of A MOURNING STAR for reasons that will be made clear shortly. Lead single Encased In Crystalline kicks things off sharp as anything, all bouncy chugs and melodeath riffs and tremolo leads and a sick mosh call of “Heaven’s kingdom turns to ash” that brings in the first inevitable breakdown. All that follows is just as strong, the band generally playing to the tropes of the genre while bringing in just enough variation like the more prominent clean vocals in Corruption or the thoughtful guitar solo in the eponymous A Mourning Star to ensure that the album remains thoroughly engaging.
The second half of the record comprises six tracks that have all been remastered from their original releases throughout 2022. The main question here is less a matter of how much better they sound and more about how well they fit into the overall full-length experience, and the answer – especially at first – is quite well. Vilmoah, the last of the six new tracks, helps a lot with this, as it dials back the intensity for more of an atmospheric and predominantly acoustic interlude which in turn ensures that any potential dip on the wonderful crispness of the album’s first half isn’t immediately noticeable as A World Beyond and Avatar Of Darkness hit just as hard as that which came before.
Admittedly this is less true of the final four tracks, which are all taken from the band’s debut EP To See Your Beauty Fade and perhaps unavoidably just sound a little muddier than the rest of the record. That aside though, they were a great set of tracks when they were first released 18 months ago and they remain a great set of tracks today, and anyway it should only take the listener a minute to re-immerse themselves if that is even necessary. The emotion and sentiment and intensity is still all there and that’s what matters, and there’s a real climactic air to closer Original Mind in particular which makes it work really well as the final track on this record just as it was last time.
Just to be clear, this review started with a list of like-minded bands not to disparage A MOURNING STAR but to allude to the fact that we seem to be living through another really great time for this sort of thing. Yes, nostalgia may be doing some of the heavy lifting, but no-one would be paying attention if the bands couldn’t deliver and in the case of A Reminder Of The Wound Unhealed they absolutely can. This current era may never be as influential as that to which bands like A MOURNING STAR are so obviously indebted – if only because it’s less groundbreaking – but there will be many who remember it just as fondly in the long run, and who will definitely count this album as one of its best.
Rating: 8/10
A Reminder Of The Wound Unhealed is set for release on October 13th via DAZE.
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