Miserere Nostri

After quite some time, I return to present to you an album very special. The band is called Mhönos, it was formed in 2009 as an one man project but now it has six musicians and it comes from France. Their album called Miserere Nostri that I have received recently, is their first full length album which was released at first place back in 2010, while the edition that I have is its re-release of May 2016. The album contains four tracks with five to eighteen minutes of duration each. So, the listener will come across a very dark release of an overall duration of about forty minutes. Musically, Mhönos play a very heavy, atmospheric, almost black Drone mixed with heavy Dark Ambient and ritualistic elements.

The first or maybe the first few listens of the album are quite hard until the listener gets into the proper psychology and begin to understand what is that, that the band can offer to him. Despite that, the band achieves quite fast to drag the listener into its deep, dark dungeon, even the one who is less familiarized with that kind of sound. Their music is produced entirely by a bass which with the proper distortion offers a different style to every moment of the ritual. The keyboards that appear in some parts of the album, maybe they will remind you a lot of Burzum, it is a very pleasant addition as they make the compositions more interesting, they give them more depth, they deliver the different feelings in a very intensive way when it is needed and surely they renew the listeners interest as they save the compositions from becoming boring or tedious.

Another very important and special element of the compositions is the vocals. In some parts they are heavy, dark and ritualistic like a procession of a funeral. In other parts they are dirty, heavy Black Metal vocals which make the atmosphere more rotten and threatening. Finally, the listener will also come across beautiful, dark coral vocals. In general, the vocals are discreet inside the compositions, they don’t play the first role but they achieve to make the feeling that is put out by the compositions more intense, as also to make them more interesting. The production is bass and heavy but very clean offering a warm, dark and full of sentiments sound. The mixture is equally good.

It is very rare for such kind of releases to achieve to put me inside their atmosphere and to transmit to me the feelings that they want. Usually they drawn into the monotony and the repetition of the same ideas. However this release is different. It succeeded in dragging into its sound and atmosphere even someone not so familiarized with that kind of sound, such as me. Finally, maybe it is not a random decision by Zanjeer Zani Productions to re-release this album two times already. Those of you who like this kind of sound, most likely you have already acquired this album. It is time for more people to get familiar with this sound and to get to know Mhönos.