As the seasons turn and the days become more autumnal, so my musical taste changes and I find myself seeking out more sombre, darker music and as it turns out this album fitted the bill perfectly. I first listened to it when I was inexplicably in pitch darkness in rural Gloucestershire and this probably further added to the impact of this melodic death/doom opus.

As the album opens with ‘Where the Shadows Adorn’, the most striking first impression is the similarity to early offering from bands such as Paradise Lost, Katatonia, Anathema and Amorphis with mournful yet rich melodies nestling comfortably alongside gruff vocals and a dense but crisp sound. This continues on ‘Rain’, but although the influences are obvious, Mother of Graves are very much their own band and push the 90s death/doom envelope further, perhaps straying more towards the melodic death metal side of the spectrum, particularly on tracks such as ‘The Emptiness of Eyes’.

As the tracks pass by, there is a richness to the sound that draws you in (great work by Dan Swanö who mastered the album) and a melancholic atmosphere takes hold with exquisite, almost delicate melodies serving to amplify the heavier portions. The album veers from melodic death metal (with a gentle nod to the Gothenburg sound) to doom metal and hints of gothic metal such as on ‘The Crown’.

I found myself becoming completely immersed in this album as the intricacies washed over me and I absorbed the heavier portions. The melodic interludes brought a soothing darkness between the more crushing sections which seemed to inspire self reflection, as well as draw out a mournful sorrow, but I’m starting to get pretentious now!

The bottom line is that this is a fantastic slab of melodic death/doom metal, which draws heavy influence from the genre’s godfathers, but brings its own nuances and sounds as relevant today as the aforementioned bands were in the early 90s.

(8.5/10 Andy Pountney)

https://www.facebook.com/motherofgravesband

https://motherofgraves.bandcamp.com/album/where-the-shadows-adorn