ALBUM REVIEW: Prosaic – Mizmor
When it comes to one man acts, Portland’s MIZMOR have become a modern benchmark in extreme metal. Crafting a monolithic sound that blends together black, doom and drone influences, A.L.N, the band’s sole member, has managed to create some of the most cavernous and beguiling records, with 2016’s Yodh and 2019’s Cairn in particular establishing the band as one of the more idiosyncratic and powerful acts to come out of the Pacific North West in the last decade, something that is no small feat considering the calibre of acts that have been coming out of this corner of the US in the last few years. The band’s latest, fourth album, Prosaic, is another impressive record and perhaps the most eclectic and imaginative album MIZMOR has produced to date.
Only An Expanse is an incredibly energetic and intense start to proceedings, with frenetic drums, thunderous bass and monolithic guitars creating a gargantuan sound right off the bat. The acerbic, biting vocals serve as a brilliant counterpoint, carving through the thicker tones and belligerent undercurrent and providing a harsh, acidic edge that only adds to the impact of this track. As the song progresses, the speed-driven black metal that defines the first few minutes shifts to a far slower, sludgy slab of doom with punchy leads and throaty, bellowing vocals. The black and doom sides of the sound do eventually begin to merge, with the grating guitar sound and sombre, droning moments making for a great combination, providing some of this song’s most captivating moments. It’s hard to make a near 15-minute track engrossing from start to finish, but this piece has enough variety and imaginative songwriting that A.L.N almost makes it look easy.
No Place To Arrive is initially built around crushing doom, although it never fully steps over into full-blown drone. The discordant, weighty rhythms and primitive, percussive drum hooks lend this a darker, muscular sound, with the bass in particular serving as a domineering, rumbling presence at the heart of the music throughout. Strangled gutturals and soaring, slick leads help to inject lots of impressive hooks into the mix, with the guitars adding some lighter flourishes to this fairly imposing and ferocious affair. Hypnotic sections and an angelic acoustic interlude help to break up the cavernous effect and add a few softer moments, before returning to a claustrophobic piece of black metal, capping off what has already been a powerful track in a caustic and aggressive manner.
Anything But carries forward the stark black metal sound that concluded the previous track, but places greater emphasis on melodic leads and dramatic vocal performances, with the drums crafting a cacophonous feel underneath these catchy, immersive qualities. Rather abruptly shifting to a chunkier, doom-inflected sound, the focus remains squarely on the guitar work and the vocals, which develop into anguished howls and hellish roars, again showing that MIZMOR is often at its best when it heads down a blackened doom route.
Acceptance pushes the underlying dissonance further, with jarring guitars and feral shrieks marking this out as the album’s most bestial number very early on. Like earlier tracks on the album, the music begins life as sludge, before suddenly turning into a faster, tighter black metal track, with the two slowly but surely merging together as the song reaches its climax, with the buzzsaw riffs being undercut by a dense burst of monstrous rhythms. It brings the album to a close on a grandiose sound with some great, melody-driven guitars, proving once again, much like the album’s opener, that MIZMOR are great at making lengthy songs that draw the listener in and hold their attention.
Prosaic stands apart from each of the three albums that preceded it in MIZMOR‘s repertoire, and this is largely down to one fairly significant musical shift; a lot of the drone influences that were prevalent throughout the band’s earliest albums are stripped back, often replaced by a huge, groove-laden sludge sound. The drone elements are still there at points, but don’t feature anywhere near as prominently, resulting in a livelier sound that seems to lurch from one brilliant hook to the next, proving to be by far the band’s most energetic album performance to date. Other than this, the formula remains mostly the same, with rabid black metal and bluesy doom providing a lot of the meatier hooks on the record, and creating a dense, claustrophobic sound not unlike the one the featured on Yodh. Much like that album, Prosaic is certainly up there with MIZMOR‘s finest work, marking a leaner and harsher take on the band’s established sound without having to deviate too far from the style fans have come to know and love.
Rating: 8/10
Prosaic is out now via Profound Lore Records.
Like MIZMOR on Facebook.