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Mourning Beloveth > Autumnal Fires > Reviews
Mourning Beloveth - Autumnal Fires

Nice demo... - 70%

kellyosbournesdick, September 25th, 2005

... But not a masterpiece many people claim it to be. This demo includes 3 long, monotonous and brooding doom metal tracks. The seeds of Mourning Beloveth's future work can be found here but in a more primitive way. The music is a mixture of funeral doom of Thergothon with the emotional edge of English doom metal bands like My Dying Bride and early Anathema.

The music for the most part is well written and the monotonous nature doesn't harm the listening pleasure at all. Vocals vary between brutal and clean. The third track Autumnal Fires in Somnolent Harmony is the best here, but you can find a lot better version of it in their debut album Dust.

There are also some short piano interludes between the songs. The thing used here is a real piano, not piano sounds from a keyboard, and it adds a nice organic feel to the demo.

The demo has a crisp sound quality but the production is not very good. As long as I can hear, the music is played live and some playing errors surface here and there. The guitars sound a bit dry (compare Iron Maiden's Powerslave with No Prayer For The Dying and you'll have a picture of it). Bass sounds a bit out of tune in places too.

But all in all this demo lays the groundwork for Mourning Beloveth's future work and musically it has its moments. Not an essential release and a bit overrated, but if you find it, it would be a nice addition to your demo collection. I must also mention that the tape itself is professionally duplicated.

Brilliant. - 95%

dominion, April 13th, 2004

A demo which has been one of my favourites for about 5 years... While listening to the first track „Forever Lost“ for the time, it already became absolutely clear to me that Mourning Beloveth would turn out to be one of the most amazing and fascinating bands from Ireland... This is Doom Metal in the way I totally appreciate – utterly haunting and desperate, and at the same time of a unique almost decadent and psychedelic atmosphere, and of a tragical nature I´ve experienced only once before in this style of musical art... the other band being Thy Sinister Bloom. The vocals change between ravishing, yet shadowy growls and a clear voice expressing ice-cold sweetness. A wonderful release indeed...