Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Mizmor - Prosaic (2023)

I am inconsistent at best with keeping on top of Mizmor releases.  Ever since I stumbled across Cairn some four years ago and I backtracked to Yodh shortly after, I have left the rest of the discography untouched, missing last year's Wit's End and Myopia releases as well as 2020's Dialetheia altogether.  An internet acquaintance on another forum was catching up on 2023 releases and I saw Prosaic on the list and decided to make some sensible use of the time off from work to give it a couple of listens through.  In doing so I read up a little bit on where Liam Neighbors gets his inspiration from to deliver his brand of doom/sludge with a blackened sense of atmosphere.  Turns out he is a recovering Christian, having moved away from the religion to becoming firstly agnostic and then atheist.  Using Mizmor as an outlet to cope with the transistion both spiritually and mentally his music is laden with anguished tones and the themes cover his personal battles around his beliefs, depression and anxiety.

If I am honest, I did not need to rum through his bio online as from listening to Prosaic alone it is clear that the artist involved is a troubled soul.  It plays as an incomplete experience to me and that is not supposed to be aimed as a criticism in anyway - in fact I think it is actually the integral part of the success of the record.  To add some clarity around that statement, Prosaic is not an album that I recognise as having the linearity or transitional progress to define it as four separate songs.  The consistency to the weight of the music offers little variation across the whole forty-six minutes duration and I absolutely would not want it any other way either.  The album is like a continuous dirge for the entire run time, relenting only for brief bursts of acoustic or atmospheric release. 

There is little to no hope present in the messaging of the record.  It is an utterly immersive yet incredibly punishing experience as Liam lays bare his range of complex and deep emotions across one of the most desolate soundscapes you will hear this year.  When in full flow, his music is thunderous and powerful but there is still a near constant scathing edge to proceedings on Prosaic.  Admidst all the dark density there is a real sense of frustration and a degee of futility being expressed also that personalises that darkness and frames it perfectly.  I think sometimes that personal pain outweighs the artist's ability to express it in the sense that on occasion the vocals do feel a bit weaker in some places.  You have to be listening closely to pick up on this (although I would argue there is no other way to listen to this record) and I should also temper this with the fact that Liam himself performs everything on Prosaic. He writes everything, records everything and produces the album to boot so I can afford him some slack for sure.