Mizmor (מזמור) – Wit’s End (Review)

This is the latest EP from US solo blackened doom band Mizmor, or מזמור.

This new 29-minute EP contains just two big tracks. The release combines blackened doom with drone and ambient, resulting in tortured dark landscapes that are paradoxically not without beauty or light.

The first song is the title track. Starting with a tension-building drone section, once the doom truly kicks in the music is largely glacial-paced and unforgiving. It’s grim and despondent, yet still filled with emotive elements. The weighty subject matter and the blackened distortion both contribute to the crushing, oppressive feeling of the song. The music walks a line between nihilistic dark despair and shades of lightened hope. It veers mostly towards the latter, but the former can be felt in some of the understated melodies and mood-based components.

The final track is named Pareidolia. This is a 14-minute droning ambient piece. The music gradually unfolds with an otherworldly calm and an almost religious choral quality. It moves through its playing time like a barely glimpsed snapshot of a hymn playing in its entirety in another dimension, which we are frustratingly and tantalisingly only able to perceive a warped part of. It’s an interesting work, which raises more questions than it answers.

This new EP from the artist behind Mizmor portrays two different aspects of his work. The first is the crushing blackened doom that will undoubtedly find much favour among fans of his top tier albums like 2019’s Cairn. The second is a more experimental and contemplative side, suggesting much, but giving away little. The former is easy to recommend to doom fans everywhere, while the latter is probably more of an acquired taste that you have to be in the mood for. Either way, Wit’s End is worth spending some time with.