ALBUM REVIEW: Mournful Sights – Emissary of Suffering

EMISSARY OF SUFFERING are unlikely to win any awards for genre innovation on their debut album, Mournful Sights. However, what they may lack in originality, they more than make up for in execution and venom. Mournful Sights is a punchy slab of vicious, unrelenting death metal that pulls in elements of everything on the genre’s spectrum – from American greats like MORBID ANGEL and DEATH, to the melodeath of early ARCH ENEMY, with just a dash of thrash mixed in. With its breakneck speed and relatively short running time, Mournful Sights is a very much a blink and you’ll miss it experience.

What is most striking about EMISSARY OF SUFFERING from the off is their sheer sonic force, and how they manage to channel all that chaotic energy into creating tight, focused tracks. Rope sees the band at their most furious; sounding like a modern SODOM cut as performed by VENOM PRISON, the song’s ridiculous speed and guttural vocals are balanced out by a whiplash-inducing stop-start rhythm.

On another standout track, Samaritan, some of the Gothenburg sound of the band’s countrymen and predecessors starts to seep through. Here, furiously fast guitars and continuous double-bass eventually make way for an unsettlingly discordant riff, in turn providing the backdrop for uncharacteristically melodic harmonised leads. With moments of harmony being few and far between, they are all the more impactful at providing a bit of relief, with the band providing the listener just enough time to catch their breath before resuming the musical bludgeoning.

It’s not all speed, speed, speed however (although, to be fair, it mostly is). For instance, Mournful Sight dials the tempo back, while leaving the intensity intact. Atmospheric guitar chords haunt the verses, while a ruthless rhythm section pushes on before EMISSARY OF SUFFERING return to their previous pummelling haste. Abbatoir is another slower moment, with off-kilter ENTOMBED-esque broken chords punctuated by short, maddened bursts of vigour. Eventually though, like most of the album, Abbatoir jumps back in to its breakneck riffery, but the brief respite is appreciated all the same.

EMISSARY OF SUFFERING certainly do not reinvent the wheel on Mournful Sights, but they do spend a good chunk of time trying to see just how fast they can make it go. Your mileage may vary, but if you like relatively traditional death metal executed with drive and aplomb, you could do far worse than Mournful Sights.

Rating: 7/10

Mournful Sights is out now via Cold Knife Records.

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