This is the debut album from Conjurer, a sludge/post-metal band from the UK.
Here we have 44 minutes of music that combines contemporary, doom, sludge, progressive, black, and post-metal. The material on Mire offers up everything from slow, monolithic crawls, to focused blast beats, meaning that Conjurer cover a lot of ground across these songs. Overall theirs is a hybrid style that’s hard to pigeonhole.
Whatever you decide to call it, this album is full of riffs, riffs, riffs, and is heavy, heavy, heavy! In a way, that could be the entire review. Well, that and to mention just how good Conjurer are at crafting said riffs and heaviness.
Each of these songs is well-written and has lots of interesting ideas to keep the listener held in rapt attention. Taking in various moods, speeds, and atmospheres during the songs, Conjurer are adept at creating contemporary extreme metal that’s forged of quality components and a love for engaging, heavy music.
Melody is jealously guarded by Conjurer, only being unleashed at the most effective and devastating moments. Lighter reflective sections appear here and there, adding further depth and nuance to the band’s arsenal. Both of these aspects are essentially there to make everything else sound even heavier and more massive than it already is. It all works very well and it’s clear that Conjurer know what they’re doing with their music.
The vocals consist of deep growls, scathing screams, and various permutations of these in between. Clean vocals are used sparingly, but are effective when they appear. Like the music, all of the vocals are well-performed, and have been honed to a fine killing point.
The album has a very satisfying crunch to it that’s provided by a professional recording. This is a crisp and efficient production that allows the songs the room to do what they want, bolstered with all the sonic might they might need, while still providing the necessary fragility to the lighter parts.
Hideously impressive and enormously enjoyable, Conjuring have created something special here.
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