Review by Sonny for Mourning Dawn - The Foam of Despair (2024)
According to RYM I have listened to over 1500 doom metal releases, so I think I can be forgiven for feeling a little jaded when approaching most new doom releases, particularly those coming out at the start of the year when, for some reason, the quality isn't always the greatest and especially by little-known acts who have been plugging away to little or no acclaim for years. Parisian four-piece, Mourning Dawn, are exactly one such act and their new album, the oddly titled The Foam of Despair, tagged as a Doom / DSBM hybrid, didn't exactly have me trembling with anticipation either. So, by the time opening track, Tomber du temps, came to an end, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself with a big stupid grin on my face as I was completely won over and enchanted by the preceeding ten minutes of downtuned bliss. Actually the original tags were a bit off the mark, The Foam of Despair is not black metal by any stretch and whilst it is rooted in doom metal it is really an album which should come under the atmospheric sludge umbrella and one which is given a freshness by pulling in additional influences from the likes of gothic and industrial metal.
That opener that so grabbed my attention has some really infectious riffing coupled with Laurent's howling vocals and a post-metal structure that plants it firmly in the atmo-sludge arena. What elevates it though, is some really nice soaring guitar soloing and spoken word interjections (an effective trope the band use several times throughout the album) that impart a melancholy air, with the cherry on the top being a reflective-sounding sax solo that closes out the track, bringing to mind some of the great work from Belgium's Messa.
Although Tomber du temps is the best track on the album, it is by no means downhill from here on in. Second track, Blue Pain, features a guest appearance by our old friend Déhà (who also mixed and mastered the album - how does he find time to sleep) who lends the track his desperate-sounding howls to provide a bit of a twist to what is otherwise a slab of Paradise Lost-inspired gothic metal. Borrowed Skin, the album's longest track, delves into the atmo-sludge playbook with a layered build to it and featuring some fine percussion work from drummer Nicolas Joyeux, the track's emotional tides rising and falling from becalmed quiet to looming and towering anguished waves, the only niggle here being the rather abrupt fade-out at the track's ending (which is also the case elsewhere with Suzerain).
Apex has a plodding chug to it that gives me an industrial metal vibe, albeit not as obviously as on closer Midnight Sun which goes full-on industrial with Nicolas Joyeux once more featuring with some imposing-sounding metallic percussion hammering away like Vulcan's Forge itself. Elsewhere Suzerain has a nice bass-heavy chugging throb with, once more, those solemn spoken word vocals and The Color of Waves is a depressive and desperate-sounding slice of post-metal atmospheric building.
The production is crisp with all the band members' contributions being readily distinguishable and allowing their inherent technical ability to shine through. However, the biggest plaudits go out to these frenchmen for their mature and interesting songwriting that encompasses multiple genres and forges them into a coherent and flowing whole, providing a compelling listen for fans of atmospheric and emotionally-charged metal and has made this my first must-hear album of 2024.