It’s always a great delight getting a pile of carefully wrapped discs over from Russian label Solitude Productions and their affiliated label Bad Mood Man. It’s a difficult task listening to them and thinking how much I like the sound of most of the albums before realising that I have to be fair and share them out among the other writers. It does give me first pick at things though and this time it was a tough choice with so much quality material from the obscure Russian and Ukrainian vastlands where the label prospect for their doomed treasure. We are used to hearing their output and shivering as it freezes the very bones and submerges us in icy plateaus and deep dark semi-frozen bodies of water. “What is this though,” I thought when I plumped upon Grieving Age to cover myself, pretty much blown away on the first humungous listen? “Where in the name of Vladivostok are these hoary Cossacks from?” Well you could have knocked me down with a feather when I looked up for more information and discovered that this is no freezing tundra that they dwell in but more like the desert as they hail from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. I really was not expecting that!
Apparently the band have been around since 2003 and released an album called ‘In Aloof Lantern, Thy Bequeathed a Wailer Quietus…’ in 2005, a two track affair. In case you had not guessed they have titles that would make fake desert dwellers Nile sob and the length and epic unravelling of their material matches it perfectly. Here we have 5 tracks spread over two discs weighing in at a whopping 105 minutes. Yep they do not do things by halves and as we are pounded by first number (are you ready for this) ‘Merely the Ululating Scurrilous Warblers Shalt Interminably Bray!!’ it really is being like weathered and ground down by the elements. This is not exactly funeral doom although it contains elements certainly at its deepest plodding core, it is at times almost doom death as it suddenly picks up pace and gallops away. A large emphasis that really makes it different is the vocal delivery of Ahmed Mahmoud. It really does sound like he is commanding a vast army, giving them one hell of a talking to and telling them they fight to the death or they may as well fall on their swords right here and now. It’s a Blockbuster delivery and one that has me thinking of ancient civilisations, which is perhaps what it is meant to. I get the same sense of feeling out of this as I do from the Grecian armies commanded by the likes of SepticFlesh and Rotting Christ at their finest. I guess in a way they make you look beneath the vocals themselves and search for some of the hidden tones in the music such as a snatch of cello and other parts that make you wonder if they are really there or maybe just part of your imagination. I did find this nearly impossible to draw parallels too although musically thought of Esoteric at their tortured best a little and it was no surprise to discover that apparently “the gravestones were polished” by Greg Chandler and Victor Santura.
Despite the huge depth and length of this over several listens it has not outstayed its welcome in the slightest. Having said that many would no doubt not last anywhere in the region of a whole song. Probably the most tumultuous and nerve wrecking part of the whole double album though is the last 27 minute number (are you ready for this) ‘I’m the Dilacerated Sewed Flesh ! I’m the Sculpturesque Doomed Soliloquy!’ It just builds and builds like the construction of vast pyramids, a task seemingly without end and one that has caused countless untold deaths as it progresses. It’s kind of hard to describe unless you actually hear it but it is most definitely a harrowing listening experience for only the most hardy of slow crushing doom pioneers. If you actually dip into the lyrics too they are almost biblical and fit well with the music, some of the long drawn out vocals make more sense as many words are used that are as large as the titles and long as the music. If you do decide to follow it probably is going to be best if you have a dictionary at hand. The only thing missing from the overall package perhaps is that they are printed here in a normal booklet rather than on aged papyrus.
Grieving Age have delivered a remarkable album here that is well worth checking out and absorbing yourself in. If you browse Metal Archives by country it is all the more surprising when you discover that there are just 13 bands listed from Saudi Arabia, not all of them active. I would be very surprised if any of them come closer than a camels spitting distance to Grieving Age and making music of this type cannot be an easy task at all and for a work of such depth and substance as this they should surely be commended.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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