All men begin to rust along with their delusions of importance, their necessity on a global scale and especially as they begin to mature, or, stray beyond the fire that’d shaped their first and loudest voice. A hymnal parsed from freely running thoughts on happiness as a captive paradigm, of purpose and the gloom-ridden breaking away motions from the futility of servile strictures this fourth full-length album from Portland, Oregon-based black/doom metal entity Mizmor is less a conceptual treatise and more an exploration of the moment and the musing thoughts of years passing by. ‘Prosaic‘ could very well speak the realization that the ordinary and the mundane moments of life might be profound, representing folk music in an obscure sense, or perhaps even devastating when set next to old unrealized ambitions. Either way the medium is yet grotesque and beautiful at once, a sound born from a painful and disturbed extreme cut open and tempered with unsteadily calm, broken glowering.

Mizmor [מזמור] formed in the midst of short-lived, fairly unique stoner/doom metal quartet Sorceress petering out as then Salem based musician A.L.N. began composing the final pieces for that group ’til he’d pivoted to his own projects soon after. The process is essentially documented within the ‘Iyov‘ (2016) split and if you’re interested in late 2000’s stoner doom and heavy psych rock weirding it’ll be worth checking out ‘Beneath the Mountain‘ while you’re at it. While the first official Mizmor song was purely ambient the style the band is best known for involves mid-paced atmospheric black metal which variously incorporates post-metal/atmospheric sludge movement (think, if ‘Heathen‘-era Thou were blackened) and a form of pensive, occasionally funereal blackened doom metal. Black/doom metal in the age of Pallbearer and Bell Witch, essentially, and you’ll find more detailed description of their style in reviews I’ve written for prior releases.

Upon revisiting Mizmor‘s discography for the sake of building dutiful reverence (read: patience), a necessarily sensitive ear and re-establishing the tonal journey of the last ten years I’d found the artist’s debut full-length (‘Mizmor‘, 2012) flat, a listlessly atmospheric black metal record without a doom metal riff in earshot (see also: Yith a few years later), especially now that I’ve taken closer look at A.L.N.‘s Ash Borer-adjacent black metal group Urzeit. While I didn’t “get” that first album quite as much when returning to it the clarified and contemplated sludge metal riffed mid-paced black metal spires of ‘Yodh‘ (2016) were yet easy to appreciate and recall with a bit of nostalgia per its heavy hype at the time of release. Use of subterranean sludge-tones, drones and overall desolate edge helped to craft a clear signature for the artist up front and proper doom metal riffs and immersive movement helped. Tempering that sound, breaking up the black metal modus a bit and presenting their most ambitious release ’til that point album number three (‘Cairn‘, 2019) was a standout and from my point of view -the- Mizmor release that’d made it official, delivered upon the hype which their recordings hadn’t captured just yet. Bigger fans of ‘Yodh‘ will of course disagree.

A profound unwillingness to self-destruct. — It might be most valuable to return to ‘Cairn‘ before examining ‘Prosaic‘ with a careful ear, as one could certainly say the thread continues with this fourth album today in terms of the stylized admixture of A.L.N.‘s music, the driving guitar rhythms available, and the refined presentation and/or production values but… this album intends to be something markedly different, not only in what it says but how the artist has approached the process of creation. Two collaborations, an mLP and a pandemic beyond the previous album Mizmor appears to insist that to continue must be enjoyable, a pleasure rather than a wracking of the self. This is probably the most unexpected turn taken, as one would’ve expected the fellowe to go on squeezing the poison of religious indoctrination out of the flesh ad infinitum, as so many others have, but instead we get a different sort of work which is less obsessed with prescribed meaning so much as conveyance. The suggestion is that by digging through this record we might find the artist’s experience, delve into personality, the ebb of daily life and any pressing thoughts such as the nature of work, the double-edge of anxiety, etc.

How does this fundamentally change the Mizmor experience? The artist’s voice hasn’t been affected by the change in any dramatic way beyond perhaps wordier lyrics, a bit more vocal intensity and a deeper connection between their interest in atmospheric black metal, post-metal and doom metal in distinct combination. Though the tonal and lyrical focus are an interesting way into the mind of the artist the bigger takeaway I’d been left with up front was a deepening signature which fuses sub-genre away from obvious tonal juxtaposition into fluid consciousness, a despairing consciousness at that. Stepping into “Only an Expanse” and staring at its 14+ minute length shouldn’t be daunting for the existing fandom and the ground the piece quickly covers should be proper educational for folks wanting to understand where the “meat” of A.L.N.‘s sound catches on easiest beyond anxious extreme doom metal atmospherics.

Often accused of Cascadian riff tendencies in the past there is little in the way of progressive or particularly technique oriented skill in the guitar work of Mizmor and instead they’ll often play with blunt-edged textures to smooth the rift between headier sludge/post-metal distortion and the scald of black metal. Presented as folken, descending progressions which are then rooted in the drift of post-metal and sludge the mid-paced wobble of the five minute burst from blackened jog to lunging doom is uniquely stated, cyclic in its modulation. The tendency on my end was to compare this to something like Wolvhammer, Tombs or maybe Usnea at their most blackened tilt, similar to my initial reaction to ‘Yodh‘ but this song is initially more laid back than that’d suggest. This sets up a less engaging mid-section before the finale (beyond ~11:10 minutes or so) presents a riff which crisps under its overdriven reverb, a captivating moment and perhaps the most immerse-heavy section on the record which’d left my mind wandering down its thread after the song ended.

The slow motion climb-and-release of “No Place to Arrive” reverses the dynamic, rather than blazing toward a doom finisher the piece instead groans into a more heated third act as the song presents sombre doom up front, probably the most traditional doom oriented riffcraft on the record overall, and eventually picks it up for the last few minutes. While this all still reads to me as a certain type of enlightened late-era sludge metal feat to my ears it is yet effective as a USBM consciousness-connected form of extreme doom metal and overall the one piece (eh, combined with “Anything But”) on this record which replicates but also clearly refines the greater effect of most songs found on ‘Cairn’, acoustic passageways included. In the past I’d always preferred the slower, most distraught edges of Mizmor‘s sound but the kicking push found on most of ‘Prosaic‘ feels like the main focus of this release, a point of refinement which aims to expand the emotive voice of the artist beyond high-brained existential dread.

Where I begin to lose sight of ‘Prosaic‘ in terms of it calling for rapt attention, no longer cupping my ears with anticipation for every note, comes with the first half of closer “Acceptance”, a song which fits well into the framework of the full listen but merely rounds out the experience. It all comes back into focus once the faster-paced black metal jog and distantly spoken word parts kick in but feeling the record drag for even just a few minutes felt like treading water; The missing piece of the puzzle is the lyrics, and by proxy what I mean is the emotional connection with the album and its intended personal narrative is yet to be unveiled on my end and this leaves me analysis incomplete. Since I’ve been such a fan of what A.L.N. had to say in the past, and because some of the lyrics are intelligible on certain pieces, I don’t doubt the work reflects the album title at the very least and a stream of consciousness is an important part of the album’s expression. Even when left to wonder in this sense I was able to enjoy this album and its oft meditative, transfixing movement.

Having found some level of ante-upped perfectionism entirely impressive upon delving into the previous Mizmor album this one felt released from the anxiety of detail to some noticeable degree, less jammed with notes and more conscious of sweeping movements. The band’s scope of style is broad enough that this works quite well and says a lot without feeling like a step up or beyond past works in terms of complexity or innovation and, sure, more recent collaborations with other artists have stretched those bounds elsewhere. I cannot say that I became truly fixated or emotionally grafted to ‘Prosaic‘ upon closer examination but that I’d appreciated the experience without feeling its effects entirely. Still, if I am looking for a modern, easily grasped and intuitive voice in contemporary black metal and doom this will continue to be one of the first names I reach for and not doubt ‘Prosaic‘ will call for a revisit once the lyrics are in hand and matched up with the running-in-sand sprints and slumped over dreariness of the greater experience. A high recommendation.

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