Review: Before The Mourning – “Etheriel End”

I came across the Los Angeles rock band known as Before the Mourning two years ago back when Nikki Stringfield was the lead guitarist – shortly after the release of “Before the Mourning”, and was immediately a fan. I couldn’t be an actual fan because they hadn’t released a full length… until now!

When I was sent Etheriel End, I listened to it 5 or 6 times to get a feel for each individual song and the album as a whole. So, what did I think? I HAD SOME PRETTY HIGH EXPECTATIONS.

Etheriel End is the band’s first full length album set for release on August 21^st has been an album I have been waiting for ever since I came across them. I am also glad they didn’t conform to every other band and just release a 5 song EP as I can forgive only a few bands for doing that. This way I get to enjoy the band in a full spectrum, with songs I can pick and choose from as my personal favourites.

We’ll start with the first taste we got from the new album with “Another Sleepless Night”. When it comes to hard rock bands, there is not a lot you can really do without drifting into metal territory – so for the sake of this review, Before the Mourning is a metal band. One of the highlights you will hear throughout the whole album is Adam Ryan’s unbelievable voice, it just overtakes everything else.

The song itself is a headbanger as it’s filled with heavy riffage, top notch double kicks and a bass that just cements the whole record together. It might be a stretch to say this but I feel Adam Ryan’s voice is on par with Corey Taylor and Ivan Moody in the more aggressive tracks like ‘Continuum’ with the pure ferocity that can be mellowed out with tracks like “Deserter”. I was so pleasantly relieved that a song like ‘Deserter’ that was put on Etheriel End, because it fits so perfectly in the midst of all of the heavy tankers of songs.

Tracks like ‘Raised by Wolves’ and ‘No Redemption’ are easily the gnarliest – filled with monster breakdowns and head-bangable riffs. “All you left us was a bag of bones” will be an interlude that people will lose their minds to, or at least I will at their live shows. ‘Raised by Wolves’ has a breakdown that could put any deathcore fan at peace (If peace actually computes with deathcore fans), with the death growl ‘Who raised you?’ followed by “WE WERE RAISED BY WOLVES!”

METAL.

Turn Slipknot into a hard rock band and you get Before the Mourning, with their own unique blend of flavour and animosity. “The Deception” still stands as my top favourite tracks of 2015, and the “You know something…” pre-chorus still has those clean vocals that made me fall in love with the song in the first place and that grizzly breakdown that makes me wonder how Adam hasn’t torn his vocal cords a new one.

Lyrically, it is filled with blabber about relationships. Normally I refuse to listen to any band with lyrics about girl problems, but I also refuse to believe Adam Ryan has any problem with women. Not overly produced and the right amount of clarity and hard hitting distortion makes this album one badass sounding record in whole, especially guitars/vocals wise. I was quite pleased with Etheriel End as it is also refreshing to hear a record like this in the rock genre.

Etheriel End comes out August 21st.

8/10