Mournful Cries

Like the jump from Saint Vitus’s debut to Hallow’s Victim, Mournful Cries plays like an upbeat extension of Born Too Late. But while Hallow’s Victim seemed to play up some deliberate contrasts, honing in on psych rock flourishes makes this album feels like a more natural path forward. Even when a song like “The Creeps” starts off on a punky route, it has more of a stoner-garage vibe than their Black Flag-derived roots.

Much of this could be attributed to Wino getting to put more of his personal stamp on the material. In addition to his vocals continuing to provide that grounded vibe, he begins to provide supplementary guitar that contrasts Chandler’s stark contrasts with a harder hustle. “Bitter Truth” and the closing “Looking Glass” (the first Vitus songs that Chandler didn’t write) are especially indicative of this, playing out like a couple of The Obsessed’s hazy biker jams put through a slow filter.

This is balanced out by the other songs’ continued devotion to drawn out misery. “Dragon Time” and “Shooting Gallery” may be lyrical opposite with the former’s medieval fantasy and the latter’s heroin den grit, but they draw from a similar pool of crashing chords and darkly pained atmosphere. “The Troll” threads the needle with the album’s slowest riffs and a lyric that used its metaphor as a more direct means of isolationist expression.

While Mournful Cries may be another easily overlooked album in Saint Vitus’s classic run, it might secretly be their strongest effort. The band’s chemistry is at its peak here, exhibiting a full production job and feeling more balanced than before. The songs might not have the iconic status of something like “Born Too Late,” but they are all excellently written with the brief overall length somehow working with the slow but tight pace. It’s hardly underrated but I think it could stand to be less overlooked.

Today we will take a look at the classic fourth album by American pioneering doom-metal legend Saint Vitus. The album, released in 1988, is titled “Mournful Cries”. The lineup consisted of Dave Chandler on guitars and also responsible for song-writing, Mark Adams on the bass, Armando Acosta on drums and Scott "Wino" Weinrich on vocals. The album perfectly blends dark existential themes of life with a more of a dark-fantasy lyrical approach. Musically it is solid and heavy-hitting blues-tinged traditional doom metal. The sound production of the album is typical for the doom scene of the late 80s.

It opens with a faster song «The Creeps», a composition which serves the same purpose as Black Sabbath’s «Paranoid» on their second album, it is a fast-paced hit. It opens the album with a more proto-punk hard rock side, which Saint Vitus is known for.

What follows next is one of the best songs in the band's catalog and on this album. The dark epic song Dragon Time. Unlike the more heroic fantasy lyrics of early power metal bands this is a dark-medieval ballad with great guitar work by Chandler and Weinrich. Wino's vocals sound almost bard-like, while staying within the heavy metal genre. The song is one of the more melodic compositions by Vitus. The guitars set the mood for a gloomy legend to be told. It is a story of a Dragon (clearly a metaphor for Death) brining havoc to a village. The three-headed hydra – dragon – is depicted on the cover of the album, which illustrates dark-fantasy themes of the lyrics.

It is interesting to note how different is the doom metal approach to fantasy-lyrics compared to the more heroic and optimistic lyrics of the power and heavy scene. There is no Savior or Hero like figure to be seen in the text, only death and destruction. Where once was a village, now lies a burning ruin.

Next, we come to a more existential themes Saint Vitus is known for. The catchy dirge of “Shooting Gallery” paints a picture of the world similar to the poetic works of Charles Bukowski. Realistic, honest and brutal yet no nihilistic but rather sad. Like Bukowski Saint Vitus for a long time where more popular in Europe than the US before becoming a cult phenomenon in their home country. The song tells of the self-destructive tendencies present in human beings. It is a requiem for a lost friend.

Next comes «Bitter Truth» opening with a sad acoustic intro that would not be out of place in a Townes Van Zandt’s album, then it quickly transforms into a catchy dark mid-tempo composition. The guitar work sounds a bit psychedelic, especially the solo near the end. The lyrics talk about pure existential dread.

«The Troll» is a slower semi-funeral paced song. The riff is simple and bleak yet very effective. The lyric brings the fantasy allegorical themes together with the themes of social isolation. The Troll is a social outcast. A tragic figure rejected by society and living on its fringes. To the point where a mythical Troll is the best description for such a life.

The album closes with the slow bluesy «Looking Glass». Again, an example of the slow classic Vitus riffing. Wino sings about how one should paradoxically aim for the light in a gloomy world. This song is not preachy, but rather honest. It is about doing the right thing even if the odds are against you. Being true to your identity. This is a spark of light in the dark of the canvas of “Mournful Cries”.

Overall the album, while short, is very coherent and works as a whole where the sum of it is bigger than the parts. What makes Saint Vitus such a powerhouse in the doom scene? It is the pure raw authenticity of their message and the dark atmosphere they create with their minimalistic riffing. When you listen to Mournful Cries, the record can bring you emotions which many more complex and well produced modern records simply fail to achieve.

Originally written for Iratus Vox Zine.

I'll cut right to the point - 1988's Mournful Cries epitomizes every last thing I love about traditional doom metal. Granted, I'm much more fanatic about this stuff than someone who simply appreciates it for what it is, but if you want downcast, bleak, dry, and even introspective metal, you've got it in its purest form.

So, this is actually my second favorite album by this legendary ensemble, after the timeless self-titled debut. One thing I love about both masterpieces is their short duration and focused, sparse tracklist, as it really drives home the "less is more" aspect of doom metal, which is what Saint Vitus are all about anyway. This approach finds true meaning in grey, melancholic music, as it simply wants to express its woebegone message, and let the emotional aftertaste created by such a brooding atmosphere do the talking. As much as I enjoy Reverend Bizarre and The Gates of Slumber, one could make the argument for traditional doom metal albums being their most effective when dialed back in terms of length; the stuff is stripped down and relatively repetitive anyway, so it's best to keep it brief to drive the point home.

And the stripped down feel is what I love most; We have 6 tracks par excellence here, without a moment of filler. This was the second Vitus album featuring Scott "Wino" Weinrich on vocals, but the first where he also contributed some of his distinctive guitarwork to complement Vitus' rifflord Dave Chandler. The music is as directly doomy as it gets, but never becomes so dirge-like as to lose its sense of direction, which actually makes for a plodding (in a good way) yet pounding feel; just listen to the very first riff of descending gloom in "The Creeps", the riff of inevitable downfall heard in the chorus of "Dragon Time", or the bottomy, marching riff after the intro in "Bitter Truth". Dragon Time actually might just be the doom song to declare the penance for all humanity for their vain and sinful ways, with the tale of a dragon torching and terrorizing defenseless villages, delivered in an anthemic yet hapless tone. Bitter Truth, and the album's closer "Looking Glass" feel a bit less damning musically, with the former picking up the energy by a slight margin and the latter being a bit warmer sounding, but nonetheless, they offer only a type of hardened introspection that still leaves no room for jovial reaction. All of this exudes a particularly glum, solemn, and cheerless essence made all the more remarkable by a stoic and steadfast heaviness.

This worsening state of already severe depression, combined with the integration of Wino's winding wisdom into the six-string department, gives this album a slight leg-up over even its landmark predecessor, 1986's Born Too Late, whose atmosphere felt just a tad less massive and oppressive than that of Mournful Cries; I feel that, by a narrow margin, MC was this particular lineup of Saint Vitus' strongest outing. Maybe one thing that makes it feel a tad more doomed than its older brother is the contrast in colors of each record's respective covers. The warm pink of BTL's cover feels just a notch more cheery than the dark blue of the exquisite hydra painting. In actually meaningful musical terms, though, there is a bit less bounciness to be heard on this record than on the '86 one; certain songs like "Clear Windowpane" and "H.A.A.G." (Hell Ain't A Game) from the pink album did have somewhat more "upbeat" moments that are absent here. Not only that, but the more slithering doom riffs of songs like "Shooting Gallery" and "The Troll" feel more involved and potent here than their older counterparts from songs like "Dying Inside" and even "Mystic Lady." In particular, Shooting Gallery is an anti-heroin song, and while I've heard plenty of those, few really make it out to be such a deathly, reprehensible substance; the mood of this song is that of an absolute downward spiral into substance abuse and chronic illness, evoking total emptiness - it was clear that Saint Vitus were still defining doom metal. This is a direction they would continue for their debut on Hellhound Records, 1990's V, spawning instant doom hits like the chilling "Jack Frost," but still falling just short of Mournful Cries.

Much like their fellow US doomers Pentagram, Vitus had an incredibly strong debut studio album in the mid 80's, followed it up with two nearly as excellent records, and then once again peaked with their fourth studio outing. This is a noteworthy parallel, as Review Your Choices is my favorite release from Pentagram, not unlike how Mournful Cries is my favorite release from the Wino-era of Saint Vitus. This album epitomizes all the well-paced, ominous, and foreboding elements that make up traditional doom metal, in a classy and compact package. Positively essential listening for all the unkempt, groggy, downtrodden bastards who can't find a girlfriend in the world!

Saint Vitus albums are, as a rule, extremely simple propositions. If you don’t like doom metal, especially Black Sabbath circa 1972-5, you aren’t going to like any of them. If you need your production to hit you in the guts, this won’t be your thing either. And if you’re in the mood for something cheerful, you don’t belong here at all. Mournful Cries epitomizes all of those staunchly backwards-looking characteristics, and from the title up is a miserable slab of sloth.

Wino does vocals here, fresh off the milestone Born Too Late, and sounds reasonably close to Scott Reagers, trembling voice all tension and terror, though a bluesy twist sneaks through, as it always does. The rest of the band do what they managed to do throughout the original stint of Vitus’s lifetime: play slow and steady, like a fucking steamroller coming at you. At times, you feel tied down to the road as the grotty twang of bass and bassed-out guitar rumble over you, yet moments of wah-wah solo freakout hit you right in the panic sensors compared to the stripped-down riffing that fills the verses. The opening riffs of ‘Dragon Time’ and ‘Shooting Gallery’ confound in their sparseness, Armando Acosta restraining himself back to only his cymbals at moments, which is one reason why those endless dirges work so well.

You see, the knack to the Saint Vitus approach isn’t really to make things happen during each song, but to skewer the listener in place and drag out a single unsettling moment to its ultimate duration. We talk about repetition building atmosphere: ‘Shooting Gallery’ seems to stop time instead of merely repeating, particularly in light of the bleak lyrics spanning out to form a gallery of portraits, which we view in the perspective of a long line of miserable fates stretching out into eternity, each more wretched than the last. Weirdly, I think it’s an anti-suicide song, as the final chorus lyric “But nothing is that bad” suggests; however, the musical mood stands in grand conspiracy against any positive thinking. As with most doom work of this era, the grinding slowness juxtaposes with a few more up-tempo cuts. Vitus don’t do upbeat, yet ‘Bitter Truth’ and ‘The Creeps’ undoubtedly take a turn away from self-suffocation, chuntering on rolling riffs that could get dead heads nodding, particularly on the Pentagramesque shuffling beat of the brief opener.

In a sense, if you’re prepared to take lo-fi, low self-esteem early doom as it is, you’ll be in cahoots with Mournful Cries, even if you’ll look twice at the artwork that was once destined for a Yngwie Malmsteen album. (Looks like Trilogy, no?) Nevertheless, this kind of music should come with a warning: may bore you senseless! Because, let’s be honest, although you’ve got to be smart to play slow this well, not that much actually happens to capture the attention. If you can’t get into the mood of the sombre, longer cuts, you’ll be glad to know that relief comes after only 33 minutes. However, as I mentioned, it’s 33 minutes in which time stands still more than once, so that’s longer than it sounds. Besides, I’ve never been completely convinced by ‘The Troll’, because doom bands don’t need 2 songs about magical creatures on the same album. Thankfully, ‘Looking Glass’ ends a little stronger, at a more tolerable mid-pace (for Vitus).

Really, Saint Vitus represent the essential characteristics of doom metal, adhering so strictly to its bold admonitions (“Thou shalt play slow, low, and unhappily”) that their music has zero crossover appeal. Conversely, that means their albums - their early brace ending with V particularly - come as a set, and if you dig one you’ll dig them all. When these guys are on point, I dig them pretty good, but I understand that some folks will drop the shovels within seconds. In the end, it depends what kind of person you are: do you run towards or away from the sound of Mournful Cries?

'Born Too Late' is possibly the ultimate doom metal album you can find. Saint Vitus perfected that album with great song-writing and atmosphere with each individual performing their respective task excellently. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that album. So, the task of crafting a worthy follow-up is pretty damn difficult.

Now, it's no surprise that 'Mournful Cries' isn't AS good as 'Born Too Late', but it's pretty damn close to that. The music is similar in the sense that it's a very "Born Too Late'ish" vibe to it. It's dark, slow and dirty, but is somehow more Wino-influenced, because he was given more freedom to write and also play guitar along with Dave Chandler for 'Mournful Cries'. By Wino-influenced, I mean that some of the music sounds like it could have been unreleased stuff originally written by Wino for his old band The Obsessed. The guitar-solos in "Dragon Time" sound like that, the whole song "Bitter Truth" sounds like that, and so on...

The song-writing on this album is good, but not quite as strong and personal as the song-writing on 'Born Too Late'. 'Mournful Cries' seems more fantasy-based (see "Dragon Time") and metaphoric than 'Born Too Late', which is more straight-to-the-point, so to speak. An aspect that I really like with 'Mournful Cries' is the fact that Wino has been granted more power and throws in some good riffs/leads/solos here and there; most notably on "Dragon Time", which is also the album's best track, in my opinion, narrowly beating the slow, creepy crawler "The Troll". The former one is a good example on the more fantasy-based lyrics, while the latter one is more "real", but told in a metaphoric way.

'Mournful Cries' is also a couple to a few minutes shorter than other Vitus albums making it the shortest one. Personally, I like albums that aren't too long. Between 30 and 40 minutes is perfect for me, so this album falls neatly under that category. 'Mournful Cries' is not quite as strong as its predecessor, but I believe it to be a bit better than 'V', which was released a couple of years after 'Mournful Cries'. 'V', however, got more attention than 'Mournful Cries' and being nestled between 'Born Too Late' and 'V' has made it too easy to forget this great doom metal record. I personally don't think that 'Mournful Cries' gets the attention it deserves as it's a better record than 'V', and although not stronger than 'Born Too Late', it's more accessible than its predecessor.

This is as good as it gets.

This is one of the finest doom metal albums ever created. Along with its preceding album, Mournful Cries is among the best in Saint Vitus' glorious, crushing doom metal catalogue.

Cries retains the band’s signature fuzzy doom riffs, though the guitars sound more crisp and clear on this outing--the distortion being more prevalent in the bass. Overall the production is cleaner, but the drums still saunter on with that signature dull thud.

Saint Vitus’ second album with Wino benefits from his added guitar playing as well; he perfectly complements Dave Chandler's psychedelic, Hendrix-if-he-were-a-metal-head solos. The guitar interplay between both Wino and Chandler is unreal on "Dragon Time." Its monolithic, sluggish riff supports Wino's vocals like a slab of bedrock. By the epic close of the song, Wino further establishes himself as one of the most recognizable and interesting doom metal vocalists in the scene.

As with its predecessor, Mournful Cries features compelling lyrics from Wino. His lyrics are simple yet vivid, painting pictures with sparse lines. "Shooting Gallery" sees Wino at his most poignant: “The tenement, it smelled of the stench of death⎯/The shooting gallery’s breath…” The words spread like a disease over a creepy, crawly groove punctuated by evil guitar leads.

"The Troll" and album closer, "Looking Glass," are among Saint Vitus' best. The former boasts one of the heaviest fucking riffs I have heard in my miserable life! “The Troll” will fuck your speakers hard with no lubrication! And how can you argue with doom metal sung from the point of view of the apparently reclusive and peaceful creature? By the album's close, Saint Vitus are dooming as hard as the likes of Black Sabbath. The sudden riff change and rhythmic shifts mid-"Looking Glass" is especially reminiscent of early Sabbath. Not that the song is derivative. "Looking Glass," as well as pretty much any other song in the band's catalogue, encapsulates an American doom metal sound that differed from the equally well-established European scene.

Mournful Cries accomplishes effortless changes in feel throughout, without losing its overall direction--straight south into a dreadful abyss of doom. Most of the tracks undergo various shifts in tempo and chord progression, but all remain straight doom metal: no deviation from the band's established sound. It's not progressive, and it's not meant to be. It's just a heavy fucking album. If Saint Vitus split after Born Too Late, they would’ve gone out on a perfect album. But, they didn't. They kept doing their thing...and they made another flawless LP of titanic, American DOOM!

Puff is a very mournful and most unhappy dragon, though the reason for this is not immediately clear. Some guess that it may be that the poor old lizard hasn’t had a good burn in a day or so, being as his supplier recently got busted for possession while being publicly dressed like a wizard. Being the paranoid serpent that he is, Puff has decided not to risk meeting with other dealers for fear of getting something else mixed in or potentially getting arrested himself. So here the poor fire-breathing dinosaur sits in his old, broken down recliner in his family’s basement, with all the Doritos corn chips and other assorted munchies that a stoner could want, but not the heart to consume a single morsel.

As if his predicament were not woeful enough, our scaly post-60s friend has decided to try and get himself into a non-cannabis induced reverie by breaking out his father’s brand new vinyl pressed copy of Saint Vitus’ “Mournful Cries”, unknowing that this album contained nothing but the most woefully fatalistic of anthems, devoid of any hope. Nevertheless, the depressed Puff found himself in a bizarre mood of angst and paranoia, perfectly befitting of the opening song “The Creeps”. Rather than continuing to wave the white flag of despairing defeat, he grabs a can of paint and dips it in until it is pure black, and then proceeds to wave his Black Flag around the room as one punk inspired power chord gives way to the next from his retro fashioned stereo speakers.

Suddenly, after the closing of a rather brief upper mid-tempo flogging with just a few too many lead breaks and a guitar tone too muddy to count as real hard core, Puff wonders if the record has just skipped as the lyrics suddenly shift from being about clinical delusions of persecution to a dragon destroying cities. Sure enough, somewhere in that final, free time mess of drum improvisation and blurring tremolo power chords, the first song ended and another, much slower one has begun. Puff identifies heavily with this song, as the psychological withdraw he is suffering from his lack of ganja has given way to thoughts of burning down a few buildings. However, despite his latent homicidal tendencies, the slower and more relaxed feel of “Dragon Time”, coupled with the frequent and riveting lead work out of Dave Chandler that invoked happy images of Jimi Hendrix and Tony Iommi kept him too occupied. By the time the near 8 minute epic had drawn to close, the mournful serpent was a calmer but still very troubled beast.

With his mood gradually coming down from its early peak, “Shooting Gallery” chimes in with a hypnotic, descending riff that brings poor Puff down to the beginnings of despair. Overcome by his unfortunate situation, and no longer taken in by the slower yet still impressive lead guitar work going on, he concentrates on the heavy feeling of the grave-like groove established in the rhythm section and Wino’s lyrics about heroine abuse. Wishing that he could improve his situation, the cellar-dwelling reptile begins daydreaming about finding the perfect dealer and the perfect woman in one package. Unwilling to submit to the irony of dreaming about chasing the dragon while both being one and listening to a song about it, he begins dreaming of a human prize. As the song picks up tempo a bit, an image of a young stoner chick appears with a guitar in hand, sitting on a mountain of quality grade reefer. Sure enough, it is the striking Ukrainian born star of stage, screen, and hit stoner flick “Dazed And Confused” Milla Jovovich. Many would wonder how it is that Puff knows about a movie that will not come out for another 5 years, but to a dragon with his tolerance for mind altering drugs; time and space are quite flexible things.

After being filled with an ecstasy that canceled out the reprise of the depression inducing drone riff of “Shooting Gallery”, our scale-covered protagonist finds himself in a peaceful acoustic guitar intro. For a few seconds our cannabis withdrawn lover boy thinks he’s hearing a variation on Milla’s “The Alien Song”, but then a dark, thudding stoner rock groove ensues and Puff is introduced to the “Bitter Truth”, which involves but is not limited to the fact that “Dazed And Confused” won’t be made for another 5 years and that he’d end up in jail if he tried anything short of time travel. Lamenting in agony over this, he tries to ignore the depressing lyrics and waits in anticipation of better musical subjects than a man facing his own death.

Sure enough, a gradual trill riff begins to fade in and Puff is all set to hear something akin to Jimi’s “Foxy Lady”, only to be let down by another slow, Sabbath inspired doom riff and still no Milla Jovovich. Our dragon friend is completely rebuffed by the trollish nature of such a cruel trick, and sure enough, he discovers that the title of the song matches this sentiment. After putting Milla out of his mind for a few minutes, Puff takes notice of a subtle sense of fun and catchiness amidst probably the slowest and most depressing homage to “Hand Of Doom” that he’s ever heard, spearheaded by a soulful vocal performance out of Wino. Once free of his brief infatuation with the future star of “The Fifth Element”, Puff’s ears are hit with a guitar lead comprised of so much fuzz drenched noise that he can’t make out a single note. It gets so violent that it begins to resemble a dragon mating call, and instantaneously our red dragon has got his mind back on Milla again. One thing is for certain; “The Troll” definitely lives up to its name as far as poor old Puff is concerned.

Before falling completely into thoughts of suicide over all that this album has put him through, Puff comes into contact with a final fit of down tempo swampy goodness in “Looking Glass”. As he begins to contemplate the dreary bastardized blues drones that filter in and out between Wino’s deep recitations, he begins to feel everything become hazy. In the next instance, Puff finds himself awake in his bed in the year 1993, and someone is knocking on his door. When he gets up and answers the door, there stands Milla with a giant bag full of weed in one hand and the newly released “Children Of Doom” album in the other. Once Puff is done telling her the wild dream he just had, she goes over and takes “Mournful Cries” off of the turntable. After a strong recommendation not to listen to that album while on both marijuana and LSD simultaneously, Puff and Milla settle down for a nice burn while listening to the new Vitus album; all the while both of them agreeing that “Mournful Cries” is a better album and that it was a good thing she left Shawn Andrews after how horribly things turned out for her on her recent film project.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on March 16, 2010.

Saint Vitus's follow up to their legendary Born Too Late LP is worthy to bear the name of metal's favorite patron saint, even though to tell the truth, all of their albums are good. See the mighty V are one of those bands where you know what to expect with every album. There aren't going to be any EBM drum machines, rapping, or neoclassical guitar shredding; just solid no-frills doom metal by four burnt out hippies.

This is something that is completely lacking in today's metal and even of the glorious days of old, a band with something good that decides to max out 7 albums with little changes and simple-to-heart honesty that's a breath of fresh air from the pretentious theology-obsessed kvlt black metal that dominates the scene at the moment. Those who always demand something new and shiny, with a lot of whiz bang gimmicks and over-board technicality, take warning, Saint Vitus is for those who think that if ain't broke, don't fix it.

On Mournful Cries, the big V decide to mix up the sound a little bit without changing the fundamentals. You still have the traditional blues-based doom that the V are masters in. Wino is at the helm and he personally is my favorite as frontman for Vitus and his gruff, masculine better suited thier mud caked sound than Reager's gothic tone. Dave Chndler still does his wah-molesting leads and the bass and drums rumble along in true Cro-Magnon glory. What is key to their sound is the subtlety and emotion that lies behind those simple roadhouse riffs. Saint Vitus create the perfect soundtrack to the great biker tragedy that was never filmed. This is a dark journey down that desolate highway in America where heroin and suicide wait the ill-fated protagonist. But the band trudges along anyway, saying a big fuck you to the world in the process.

This is one of their more complex and diverse albums, not that complex from a technical standpoint but theres a few curveballs now and then. The uptempo opener The Creeps takes the listener by surprise but are soon greeted by the familiar roar of Dragon Time. Other surprises include the apocalyptic drum domination at the end of Shooting Gallery and the drawn out drone of The Troll which even for Vitus feels lethargic (but in a good way). Overall the sound is sounds like a more nuanced and slighlty better produced Born Too Late.

While this isn't my favorite work from this band (that would go to Die Healing) all of their albums are good and this is one of their albums. So if you like solid, no-bullshit metal, go out and buy this instead of the new Mastodon.

Following up an album as good as “Born Too Late” may be a have been a tall task for some bands, but for one as great as Saint Vitus can pull it off. Saint Vitus does just that with the follow-up, “Mournful Cries”.

“Mournful Cries” follows perfectly in the steps of “Born Too Late”: under-produced, simple, and most of all, disturbingly slow. This is however doesn’t have as good of songwriting as “Born Too Late”, but outside of that, it never falters!

The album opens with the relatively fast paced, for a doom metal band at least, “The Creeps” followed by the best song of the album “Dragon Time”. As the title would indicate “Dragon Time” has the Dio-esque flair of telling the story of a dragon haunting a village. The general theme of this album has a mid evil vibe, which fits almost perfectly, even if it is a bit cheesy at times.

But as said, this album is not as good as “Born Too Late”, and isn’t because that album was just so perfect that it couldn’t be topped. “Mournful Cries” has a few signs of decreasing songwriting. Also, it seems that these songs were under rehearsed before recording them.

Overall, faults aside, “Mournful Cries” is still a solid album by Saint Vitus. If you enjoy doom metal, you will enjoy this. If you like Saint Vitus, you will enjoy this.

Much like it’s predecessor Born Too Late, Mournful Cries is big on Saint Vitus’ sluggardly tempos, features only 6 cuts in it’s contents, and remains another doom metal landmark. Having spent the early part of their career out of step with the thrash metal movement, Vitus continued to cower in the light of underground fashion. Death metal and it’s ensuing domination was brewing up like a cauldron full of pus, but Vitus simply threw their monk hoods over their heads and forged ahead oblivious. They’d survive that movement, and live long enough to sneer at black metal’s fashion surge as well, eventually coming into vogue as stoner rock marched into center stage nearly 20 years after the band’s inception.


But as for Mournful Cries itself, it actually represented a slight improvement over the band’s prior album Born Too Late, as it’s songs stick to the robs better and more often. “Dragon Time” is more than a touch hokey in the lyrical department, but this slow descent is marked by killer riffs and a monster chorus, making it one of the band’s finest. “Bitter Truth” raises the pulse (a smidge) while “The Troll” is perhaps this band’s best ever ode to sloth tempo, while revisiting the social alienation theme of prior albums. Perhaps the addition of Wino’s guitar skills helped give the album an edge. Perhaps it’s just a killer doom opus. Whatever the case, Mournful Cries is a damn fine listen. Vitus would take a turn for the worse after it, as Wino would depart the ranks after recoding one more album, the disappointing V.