Review Summary: Metal as a really metal thing.
The sanity is returning, I can feel it coursing through my veins as the concrete splicing riffs and guttural vocals from Mura fill my empty heart to the brim with lifeforce. In conjunction with living a healthy lifestyle, metal was always therapeutic to me, grounding me physically, spiritually and emotionally even in spite of me making it a fanatical part of my life at points. Life is about balance, which I'm learning. Today I'll be covering the three track EP Needle Cathedral from Mura.
Death-doom aficionados will find a lot to love about this recording, its crushing, it's catchy and grimy not to mention atmospheric. Thick down tuned riffs that make you want to snap your own neck in half drive this album's energy. Secondly, the album's percussion batters the listener's eardrums with control and power. The tempos range from lurching to sprinting, with each segment driving you into the realm of metal fully. Track 1 Needle Cathedral, greets you with some eerie distortion before erupting into some seriously cavernous doom riffs. A close quarters battle with nothing but fists separating you from the walls. Track 2, Abyssal Putrefaction, starts off in a vintage Bathory manner with a triumphant lead riff signaling you lead the crowd in an epic wall of death. The tempo slows down briefly before riling itself back up again to deliver another kidney shot! Track 3, Cascade of Skulls, more or less follows the same suit but the music is so catchy that it doesn't matter. And also of note is that in the middle section, Mura goes all out, delivering a spirited approach to add more variety to the musical landscape.
Death/Doom is a genre that's been around for decades. If you're not doing something new with it, you have to be real ***ing good at it and being real ***ing good at it is what Mura brings to the table. I give this a solid 3.5/5 but only because it's an EP, not a full-length, otherwise bump that beast to a 4!
