Mizmor - Prosaic

Portland, Oregon based musician, A.L.N. has been releasing music under the moniker Mizmor for some time now.  The solo project's last full length album was 2019's masterpiece "Cairn,' which is one of the best doom albums I've ever heard.  With that being said, A.L.N. has remained busy since then, releasing two collaboration albums, one with Andre Black and another with Thou plus an EP titled "Wit's End.'  I don't know who Andrew Black and haven't even had a chance to give that album a listen but the release with Thou was one of my favorite albums of last year.   So where was Mizmor going to go?  A more funeral doom direction that presented itself on 'Wit's End' or a perfect melding of blackened doom as found on the Thou collaboration album 'Myopia?'

    Why not both?  Mizmor's fourth full length album, 'Prosaic,' combines all these elements and sounds into something new.   While not as angry or cavernous as 'Cairn,’ this latest doomed epic still brings more than enough doom and gloom. It is also mixed with the searing edges of black metal so even while it suffocates you, it rips you to pieces. The atmosphere is palpable but there seems to be an intense focus on the music, a zeroing in on what makes the project so special in the first place. Blackened doomy sorrow with a powerful purpose. 

    The production, and the song writing itself, definitely feels more 'open' this time around but that just means there is more room to fit everything that makes this project so great.  The opening moments of 'Only An Expanse' exemplify what I am speaking of.  The riffs are thick, low, and drenched in melancholic woe but their tone, and the speed of the drums, are definitely on the black metal side of the fence.  With that being said, the sound is a perfect misanthropic marriage of the two styles.  In essence, this song, and album as a whole, just sounds so damn cohesive and natural---the flow is perfect.

    Moments, such as the movement starting at the 5:00 mark, are harrowing.  A.L.N.'s tortured vocals combined with the slow guitars...sends shivers down my spine.  

    Other songs, such as 'No Place To Arrive,' combine quite moments with the surrounding destitution.  At the 5:55 mark, the song fades out to clean instrumental tones before sliding back into the blackened doom.  The whole journey works, each vastly different section of the song complimenting the other one while making me realize that although the styles are different, the themes are still the same.

    'Anything But,' is the shortest song on the album but also the most extreme and against the grain.  It's slow, plodding music swirls with the insanely barbaric vocals to create a song that is just a straight up ghastly beast.  For a doom fan like me, this song is absolutely perfect and I find it to be one of the best songs from Mizmor.  Oh and that piano outro caps the song off very nicely.

    'Acceptance,' is capped on the ends by monolithic doom that is so stark that my very surroundings began to grow dark during this review.  The middle portion of the song is as furious as any troo and kvlt black metal I've heard this year too.  

    Ultimately, 'Prosaic,' is another epic, longform torture device that's nicely into Mizmor's discography and I don't see any reason why this album won't receive the well deserved praise all of A.L.N's other works have collected. A.L.N. said he wanted to make a less perfect, more natural sounding album.  He has definitely succeeded in presenting a more human angle to deeper themes.