Review by Ben for Mizmor & Thou - Myopia (2022)

I've never heard a Mizmor or Thou album before. My only experience with either band prior to Myopia was the Mizmor EP that came out earlier this year. The first track on that EP was pretty good, but the second more experimental effort wasn't very appealing, leaving me with a fairly uncertain opinion. I can safely say that any uncertainty has been completely washed away after spending time with this collaboration release. I'm left chomping at the bit to check out full length albums from both bands.

Strangely, I'm not massively into the first two tracks on the album. They're certainly not bad, but the urgent black metal of opener Prefect isn't very representative of what's to come, and apart from a very heavy riff that kicks in halfway through Subordinate, that track doesn't really grab my attention either. However, from third track Drover of Man, this album contains one doom monster after another, consistently crushing the listener with HUGE sections and highly passionate screams and growls. I see myself as more of a death doom and funeral doom sort of guy, but when more straight doom metal is this heavy and crushing, it can easily sit alongside my favourite artists of those subgenres. Check out the breath-taking Indignance for an example of what's on offer here.

Being inexperienced with the artists involved in this release means I don't really know whose responsible for which aspects. Maybe someone can let me know, given my leanings, as to which of the Mizmor / Thou combination I should venture into first. In the meantime, I'll just press play on this beast again.