In sporting an even more compelling, yet still less-than explained narrative for their fourth full-length album Los Angeles, California-based solo black metal act LAMP OF MURMUUR intend to evoke a yearning toward boundless territory, a freeing event per the escapist. In practical pursuit of an unchained visionary work they’ve decided to split their efforts in two rather than attempt a certain fusion of forms on ‘The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy‘ where melodious yet thrashing black metal clashes awkwardly with gothic rock and dark metal vaunting. The result is even more fastidious than their last record, a better performer has developed over the years, yet their efforts to splice a host of interests leads to an occasionally tuneful yet largely inconsistent listen which never fully coheres into pointed conviction.

Despite being named as notable within the pandemic-era bubble for raw black metal Lamp of Murmuur had released something like five demos in the space of a year before the global shutdown created that specific echo chamber and as such it was hard to take anything they’d done seriously to start. Rather than suggest they bleed for the authenticity of the black metal soul the main fellowe behind the project M. (Magus Lord, Silent Thunder) appears more as a general metal fan in interviews, essentially suggesting that the lo-fi rust of those first two or three years of their work had more to do with building skills in both self-recording and performance than anything else as he’d monetized what were sometimes improvised or quickly sewn together work. The first great chasm they’d created came via album number three (‘Saturnian Bloodstorm‘, 2023) where taking on late 90’s/early 2000’s Immortal received praise (in review) on my end for the sake of being a fan of that era of the band. I’d actually rated it higher than expected and not for its depth of content or a single original thought so much as it was a well put together thrashing black metal record which’d lend itself well to repeat listening.

Heading into ‘The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy‘ I was unwilling to predict what it would necessarily be beyond likely consisting mostly of black metal pieces. With consideration for the average fan-brain mechanism a step towards consistency made the most sense for a touring band and in some regard they’ve iterated upon the Norwegian black-thrashing found on ‘Saturnian Bloodshed‘. We do in fact get there right away but only conditionally as the 9+ minute stance presented by opener “Forest of Hallucinations” is instead loosely evocative of Galder‘s Old Man’s Child in terms of doubled and gargled vocal sounds alongside a few soaked-through keyboard hits. It isn’t exactly ‘Ill-natured Spiritual Invasion‘ outright (re: “Reincarnation of a Witch”) but as we pass into “Hategate (The Dream-Master’s Realm)” we find some logical expansion of what’d been developed on the previous LP while spoken/clean vocals find a point of insertion for some manner of dark metal suggestion to warn the ear of what comes next.

Side B‘s three part title track throws the most egregious curveball with “Part I – Moondance”, a crossover between gothic rock/metal with rasped vocals and some manner of rocking melodic black metal stride. I suppose this feasibly accesses the gothic rock/post-punk interest found on parts of ‘Submission and Slavery‘ (2021) but in a generic manner, the sort of danceable hook I associate with “shareholder approved” metal these days. Part two does well to expand upon this with clean vocals ~3:47 minutes into its breadth, the moment isn’t half bad even, though it is yet an awkward step to take beyond the first half of the LP. From there Part three resorts to even more protracted lead guitar meandering and it goes on seemingly forever. — This is easily the least successful portion of thier grand transformational experiment here and even if I found the neofolken glow of closer “A Brute Angel’s Sorrow” worthy of its own new age side project.

The nature of an artist going where they please should naturally prove polarizing for the broader fandom of a sub-genre of rock music highly dependent on iteration for identity. In this way I can appreciate the halfway-there step that ‘The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy‘ creates between its two halves as Lamp of Murmuur begins to reach for a collective realization of their own enthusiasm for black metal, gothic rock and such. Per the practicum received he’s been far too ambitious with the title track, an at-times poppy master of none event which congests the impact of the full listen irreparably for my own taste, yet this doesn’t void the snarling and keys-tapping bandying found on Side A, much less a few of the small successes found therein. If these elements made tonal sense in succession or made a stronger case for their tuneful exploits it’d be less of an issue but as is this fourth album from the band is less a leap forth and moreso an underbaked fusion still percolating in mind. A moderately high recommendation.

---