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Band: Thurisaz
Album title: The Pulse Of Mourning
Release date: 31 March 2015
Label: Sleaszy Rider Records
Tracklist:
01. Longing...
02. ...For A Change
03. Patterns Of Life
04. Rays Of Light
05. Tangram
06. One Final Step
07. Enslaved Dreams
08. In All Remembrance
09. Stargaze
First of all I have to excuse myself because I left for quite some months this album aside. I got the promo almost one month before it was officially released, listened to it a couple of times, found it amazing, decided to write a review after a week or two and then completely forgot about it. Ok, this kind of things happen often to me, but you must believe me that in this flood of different albums released each day it's simply impossible to get through everything, but still, albums like it is The Pulse Of Mourning, the fourth studio album from this Belgian metal band can't be ignored. It's not that often that you hear this kind of mixture between emotion and aggression so stunningly put together. This band simply deserves more attention from fans of divergent metal music and another thing to be considered is that people too often confuse this band with much more popular Finnish folk power metallers Turisas, although they have nothing to do with them, not musically, nor visually.
Now, The Pulse Of Mourning is nothing else but a rollercoaster of emotions, a professionally done album from each and every aspect and those who already heard their older works, especially their previous album The Cimmerian Years from 2011 and their earlier this year released out of the ordinary live DVD Thurisaz: Live & Acoustic, which simply took metal to a new level supported by a string orchestra and showed their most intimate side, know that such a combination of melody and aggressive riffing, everything well balanced and yet atmospheric, is hard to be found. The new offering from Thurisaz serves with nine songs that often go beyond all normal boundaries of metal genre. The basis of their musical output is still doom, death and black metal, let's say it's dark metal in some strange way, but done with an avantgardish spirit so often reaching the borders of progressive rock, post-metal and post-rock, even a huge dose of melancholy that is present all over in those beautifully arranged melodies makes most of the songs truly unforgettable, sometimes making your skin going goose bumps and leaves you breathless. Just listen to the masterpieces like it is the melancholic atmospheric metal of the soothing "In All Remembrance", or the unique mixture between aggression, powerful drumming and emotion in "Patterns Of Life". Then how bravely Thurisaz toyed with well thought industrial elements in the haunting "Rays Of Light" or yet with brain melting gloomy sequences and progy elements in the almost epic "One Final Step", not to forget some acoustic interludes here and there that blend perfectly with powerful escapades. Just listen how fluid, deliberate and in a way strenuous are those passages between crushing death metal, blackened doom and melodic atmospheric patterns deepened by some amazing keyboards. The vocal range is very broad, from harsh growls, shrieks and different clean vocals. There's no need to tell you that every instrument is played with perfection, thanks also to solid production the listener can fully enjoy in every single segment of it. Another thing are song compositions and the sole album structure which is done in a way that connects all of the tracks so very well together and it feels that you are listening to only one long epic, compact and above all dynamic track all over.
The story of The Pulse Of Mourning nicely closes with the piano driven soothing semi ballad "Stargaze" and if you are one of those musical adventurists believe me that after this sonic experience your mounth will be wide open and striving for more. The Pulse Of Mourning has that necessary pathos that is crucial when you are putting together various musical styles and elements like Thurisaz are doing and their output should be considered as a textbook for many other bands who try to blend similar things and so many times nothing worth your time comes out. Diversity, aggressivity and beauty are the key words of Thurisaz's fourth full-lenght album which deals with lyrical themes such as loss, tragedy, pain and suffering. It's a release that will captivate your mind from the ominous opening on, through all those memorable clean choruses, groovy climaxes, until the calm melancholic ambiances of the closing track.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 9/10
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