Mourning Dawn – The Foam of Despair
Release Date: 12th January 2024
Label: Aesthetic Death and Tragedy Productions
Bandcamp
Genre: Blackened Doom
FFO: Shining, Katatonia, Gojira.
Review By: Paul Cairney
The Foam of Despair is the 6th album in the long career of French Blackened Doom crew, Mourning Dawn. 6 tracks long (7 if you include the bonus track on the CD Version), it is a largely sombre affair, but in the best possible way. Mourning Dawn are masters of the melancholy, they are purveyors of superior blackened doom!
This is exemplified by the crushing 9-minute plus opener ‘Tomb de Temps’. Spoken word samples are littered throughout the track, and the fact that the words are in their native French adds additional gravitas to the song. It is aggressively heavy and also features a rather wonderful saxophone as the song exits.
There are riffs aplenty in The Foam of Despair. 2nd track. Where the opening track bludgeons you into submission, ‘Blue Pain’ has a lighter touch and is the first song to really get those neck muscles stretched as the riff slowly seeps into your psyche.
Perhaps key to the album are the tortured vocals that often dominate the tracks. Tonally perfect for the album, ‘Blue Pain’ sees the repeated refrain, ‘…It’s in my head, it’s in my head’ as the words stick, erm, in your head! You feel vocalist, Laurent’s pain.
Perhaps where the band excel in The Foam of Despair is in the longer tracks. With 3 of the tracks clocking in at over 8 ½ minutes, it is sometimes possible for albums to lose a bit of focus, a bit of drive over the songs. Mourning Dawn avoid this, ensuring the longer tracks have enough variety, be it with the sampled spoken words, sometimes acting as a natural barrier to a change in the pace of the song, as in ‘Borrowed Skin’, or by the subtle vocal changes in the tracks. It is enjoyable stuff.
Mourning Dawn are an experienced band, and although this is only the 6th full length album since their 2007 eponymous debut, they know how to structure an album that keeps the listener invested. You will not press the skip button once, and if you are like me, you will delay writing this review just so you can have 1 more listen.
The Foam of Despair gives the listener more on each and every listen, always prodding you to press play 1 more time.
An impressive start to 2024.
(4 / 5)
