As heavy as they come, Mosara continues to seep along the path of fuzz-induced stoner doom metal with juggernaut, ponderous music.
This is their third release since their eponymous album in 2021, and here they are with another outing, digging a deep furrow in the genre of ferocious Doom music. It is rough, raw, and textured, and even in its downtuned Doom Sludge, it remains quite vibrant. Even if they describe themselves as “Atavistic and Depressing Doom Metal”, their music is very engaging and vigorous.
In the opener “Rumour of a Funeral” it seems like a distorted down-tuned guitar struggles to start the song, before a darkened Doom avalanche finds and buries you. One line from the Black Sabbath song ”Iron Man” comes to mind: “Heavy boots of lead” as the music drags forward. But not only does the line from the song come to mind, but also the heavy riffs that Black Sabbath created. Mosara has, through their releases, dug deep into the fields of this genre and came up with a distinct, fuzzy, meaty, sonic volcano made out of guitar lava for themselves, as this first song (and the rest) proves yet again. It is utterly fascinating and engaging. If you are interested in the band´s development through the years, check out their Bandcamp site for the release 2005-2025 and discover that the band has been around in different versions for twenty years, but has had three significant releases from 2021.
After all the torrential riffage, immersing howling, angst-ridden growls, the music simmers down and the first song ends with a low-rumbling bass pointing towards the next song, “Djinn”. This is a fourteen-minute monster that opens with hits on the bass strings, slowly glissading into a melodic and slow-paced mesmerizing lull before it is fused into distorted riffs with drums below the mid-tempo mark, some mumbling bass and a clean guitar sliding along. The structure is sluggish towards desperate hoarse vocals. Underpinning the vocals, static riffs carry it forward until the sound widens out and the distortion leaves the guitars that rotate slowly on a sluggish foundationby the rhythm section.
The distorted guitars return and a fuzzy, higher-pitched guitar rises before it is overtaken by hoarse growls. Even with the avalanche of sounds, the song creates an inner calmth in the listener, something Funeral Doom often does. But this is not that sub-genre, as the end of the song shows after it has simmered down to clean bass strings: The dense music resurfaces, immersing a high-pitched solo guitar and increasing pace as screaming vocals take over before it ends in smooth sound effects, furthermore inducing a fleeting ethereal impression.
Heavy strumming on down-tuned strings opens “Somewhere” before a distorted metal explosion overwhelms the listener. Rising within the riffage are the desperate and struggling vocals. The music drags along with glistening sounds from the cymbals as a counterpoint to the unhurried hits on the rest of the drum set. It is slowly moving forward when another guitar appears with a melodic theme before a melancholic vocal melody emerges. The drums speed up, underlining the sadness and despair in the vocals, and a fuzzy wah-wah guitar breaks the mold before the music slows down into some gloomy doomy glory just to brighten up towards the end.
Massive strikes on the six-string open the last song, “Rivers of Blood”. It is rhythmic and repeating before a guitar breaks the staccato with an unruly, fuzzy melodic theme. The rhythm hammers and trudges forward, accompanied by a guitar and desperate vocals. It is distorted, discordant, and fuzzy Stoner-infused music, probably sensed by the uninitiated listener as repulsive. But for us metalheads, it is quite the opposite: appealing and alluring in all its might. The riffs pick up a fast rhythm, and the fuzzy guitar materializes with a high-pitched solo morphing into wah-wah induced soundscapes with vocals and some rumbling bass. A melodic theme is repeated, leading to the end of the song and album with a ponderous, mighty riff.
Together with the release, the band has made a lyrical video for the title song that can be enjoyed here:
