The Mourning – Hush

The Mourning came to me as a recommendation. I’ve never heard of the band before, had no idea what they’d be doing in terms of genre and jumped into their debut album, pretty much in the blind. At my first audition of this album, I was feeling a bit thrown off and many things didn’t seem to work for me, but as it turns out, “Hush” is a grower, and with a few more listens, I quickly began to grow a sweet tooth for it. It’s pleasant on the surface but the best listening experience comes if you really pay attention to the music and give it a bit of effort.

Their sound is clearly inspired from progressive rock and metal classics, with Dream Theater and Haken being some of the first bands that come to my mind as comparisons. But comparisons are a bit irrelevant since they managed to create a pretty unique sound and atmosphere. The songwriting is quite complex and feels slightly experimental at times. Most songs follow the structure of verses, choruses and a bridge section, but some even escape that, going quite unconventional (‘My Own Hell’, ‘Smooth Seas’) and creating the feeling of a journey.

Some songs are quite heavy and dramatic (‘Hush’, ‘My Own Hell’) while others are groovy, moody and atmospheric (‘I Feel the Rain’). Throughout the album, the music goes through energetic highs and quiet atmosphere as well as exploring all the space in between. They are great with long extended buildups, slowly growing the soundscape around a main vocal theme. ‘Hush’ is the best example of this. The drums play a lot into the build-ups.

The Mourning – The Mountain

Drummer Jason Berling knows his way around the toms and floor toms which add a lot of gravitas and suspense, creating that anticipation for where the music will reach its peak. He’s also great with tender grooves and a lot of syncopated or progressive off-beat elements. His approach adds a lot of tension to the composition which helps keep the listener interested and engaged. He doesn’t leave room for any dull moment because he showers all the songs in fills and unexpected details. He’s also great at transitioning and connecting different rhythms or grooves in a coherent manner, which keeps the songs fluid and cohesive all the way through.

Because this is prog, the bass and the guitars hardly ever do the same thing which prevents the bass lines from getting lost as a background instrument, though they do shine the most when the overdriven riffs go silent, and especially on the atmospheric groovy sections (‘I Feel The Rain’). The guitars offer a ton of variety, from complex and proggy riffs to chugging headbangers, playful muted sections and a lot of noodling. Combining clean, acoustic and driven guitars also offers a broader spectrum of sounds over which the band can expand their songs. The verses and main riffs are usually reserved for the groovy and running elements while the chorus will be sung over full open chords, and the bridge section will give us the most progressive rhythmic play as well as many of the solos. However, they have a tendency to also stick some solos between the first chorus and second verse from time to time (‘Chaos Machine’, ‘He Cries’). Many of the solos are performed by guests, which means there is a lot of variety in lead sections, though the most noteworthy is provably the 2nd solo in ‘I Feel The Rain’ which plays a lot on tension and dissonance in pitch. And this one is actually played by the band’s guitarist, Francesco Pinter. Another awesome solo moment is the chaining of a keyboard solo followed by a guitar solo on ‘My Own Way’.

The Mourning – Cries of the Mind

And that gets us to keyboardist Alex Nasla. Most of his parts on this album feel to me like a reminder of Haken‘s first 2 albums, if not even throwing back to early prog rock bands like Yes or Rush. They have that classy prog rock synth sound. They often noodle in the background of verses and choruses, though sometimes they do jump to the forefront. A really cool moment happens on the first chorus and subsequent second verse in ‘The Mountain’, where some alternating keyboard and guitar lines almost sound like they’re having a subtle solo duel beneath the vocals that stay in the forefront. But there are also some rich string sections and cinematic effects that change the overall sound a bit on the last songs on the album, ‘My Own Hell’, and ‘Smooth Seas’, with the latter giving us some epic and ethereal piano runs.

Vocalist Johnny Ray is also credited on keyboards so I don’t know exactly which parts belong to who, though I’d assume most technical stuff are carried by Alex since Johnny is busy singing. And his voice was one of the elements that I struggled most to get used to. He sounds slightly nasal and on the parts where he moves up in pitch and volume, it felt slightly strained and uncomfortable to me. I got used to him more after a few listens, and after getting more into the emotions and  overall vibe of the album, the tension in his vocals started making more sense to me. But I still find his clear and relaxed sections a lot more satisfying than the high intensity ones, with the exception of the intentionally gritty lines on the verse in ‘Cries of the Mind’. Those are very satisfying and cathartic. There are also backing vocals by Eliana Blanchard all through the album, and I feel like if she would be given a bit more vocal parts and was pushed a bit louder in the mix, that the dual voice combination would be perfect, because it’s when they both sing together that the band’s sound feels most complete to me. She does show up in the band photo but is listed as a guest musician on their Bandcamp page so I feel like she’s almost like a band member but not fully.

The Mourning – Smooth Seas

There are a few striking moments that I feel I need to point out as favourites. On ‘The Mountain’ and all throughout ‘Hush’ there are some rhythmic and repetitive vocals sections that remind me very strongly of Haken’s layered vocal parts. On ‘The Wind’, there is an awesome pipe organ and acoustic guitar outro. On ‘My Own Hell’ there is a switch into EDM with accelerating tempo closing the song. And in the album closer we get a moment of death metal drumming with some ridiculously fast blast beats that somehow make sense in the context of the totally not death metal song.

When wrapping it up, ‘Hush’ is a very pleasant surprise. It displays a lot of compositional variety, and offers a strong throwback to prog metal classics while also keeping a unique sound and mixing in unexpected elements. All band members deliver spectacular performances both from a technical and creative standpoint. Wile the album doesn’t feel perfect by any means, it is certainly worth your time, and especially given that it’s a debut, I find it very impressive.

Track List:

1. Chaos Machine (04:57)
2. The Mountain (05:37)
3. He Cries (04:22)
4. I Feel The Rain (05:05)
5. Hush (05:04)
6. The Wind (04:40)
7. My Own Way (04:47)
8. Cries of the Mind (05:34)
9. My Own Hell (04:48)
10. Smooth Seas (07:02)