Hat
tip to Headfirst! Records for pointing my crusty ears in the direction
of Mourning Cloak, who have one song available over on Bandcamp called
“No Visible Light.” The title is apt, because this track is an ominous
cloud blocking the sun, raining down charcoal dust, black mud, and
infant ash on us all.
Their
Facebook page refers to their music as “funeral doom/punk,” but I only
hear the former in this track. But this song doesn’t sulk through the
cemetery, it grooves hard enough to split the catacombs in half,
releasing the crypt bats into the air. After the quickly dissipating
opening ambience the guitars crawl from open graves and shake the rust
off their bones with godless black-and-blues riffs. There is suck a
thick layer of slime and sludge on this song that it reminds me of that
barrier of grime and giant centipedes Indiana Jones’ love interest
sticks her hand through in Temple of Doom.
If you don’t get that reference, here it is in non-geek language: This
song is nasty and unpleasant in the most sadistically delightful ways
possible. The vocalist sounds like he’s plummeting into a bottomless
pit, shaking hands with the devil to make a pact to finally break his
fall. The song concludes with a (slightly overlong) cacophony of mayhem
and sirens, which sadly just sounded like the usual Brooklyn madness
outside my window, home of serial-arsonists and fisticuffs. I’m really
anxious to hear more from these guys from Greensboro, NC, especially if
upcoming songs mix in the punk influences they mention as well. I’m not
sure if they named themselves after the butterfly species (Latin name:
Nymphalis antiopa) but I did notice that the pre-butterfly larvae form
looks exactly like the type of creature who would jam out to this music:
Mean, dressed in black, dotted suspiciously with red stains, and
covered in spikes. This is some seriously bleak stuff that fans of
Bongzilla and Cough should feverishly inhale.
