Review Summary: Emotional, haunting, powerful and one of the best DSBM albums ever to be released
Darkness, despair, anguish, pain and depression, these are five emotions that
When Mine Eyes Blacken convey with ease and beauty across the four tracks that make up the first and sadly, only album that they ever released. The solo project of sole member Mort, the self titled release of project
'When Mine Eyes Blacken' is a simple yet elegant take on the genre DSBM.
Across the four tracks there is very little technicality or flourishing instrumentation, the guitars combine both clean and harsh sounds, but tend to stick to mid pace chords and tremolo picking, such as on
'Neath Pale Stars', simple yet effectively put together enough to create a soundscape of sad tones and progressions. Whilst no new ground is broken on this album, what is done is effectively piece together the good bits of DSBM as a genre, and take it to its most basic format, and the result is astounding. The drums, the main other instrument employed, is varied, yet simple again, double bass work is employed throughout the album, and the patterns and rhythms do vary, though rarely are complex. This is album is very much simplistic, but well thought out and pieced together. The drums do fulfill another purpose, they employ a lot of fill work, likely to create a new sound, breaking out of the repetitive style the guitars employ, much like early Burzum, riffs are repeated and progressions tend to last a while before turning into a new one. The songs do vary across, whilst
'Secluded Within Sorrow...' is very slow and monotonous, hypnotic in its stylings, following track
'Neath Pale Stars' is much faster, more traditional black metal style, with the DSBM style still prominent in its choice of chords and vocals.
Speaking of the vocals, Mort employs a very high style, similar to that employed by fellow DSBM players 'Thy Light', the vocals feature a lot of reverb and appear distant and mysterious, they style itself fits perfectly with the music been played, the voice sounds pained and full of the emotion trying to be conveyed through the music. They are not understandable at all, the lyrics will have to be looked up, which is definitely worth doing, as they aren't standard for the genre at all, rather than going on about suicide and self harm all the time like others, they instead are almost philosophical, and poetic in the way they are written, take the lyrics to
'The Light of Those Who Failed':
Lurking Within the depths of despair
Crawling, reaching towards the light
Following trails of confusion
Pacing in the footsteps of pestilence
The light of those who failed shines brightly
A beacon... of nothingness'
Clearly thought has been put into the lyrical aspects, and stand out amongst those who share the genre.
The only issue with this album, one that I don't personally hold, but others do, is the song lengths; with four songs, each over 7 minutes, and the longest been over 20, this may be too long for some listeners, and makes it hard to determine ones place in the album, but for me it holds no issue. I find the album flows perfectly, and should definitely be enjoyed as a whole, rather than in seperate elements, as it becomes one long and perfect piece.
What has been created here, for me, is one of the best DSBM albums ever written, it's powerful, emotional, haunting and dark, whilst at the same time, beautiful to listen too and hypnotic to a level that many bands strive to achieve, but few sadly ever do. I would definitely recommend any DSBM fans, if not black metal fans in general check it out, it will be a life changer.
