Mental Torment – Ego:Genesis
Release Date: 29th September 2021
Label: Metallurg Music
Pre-Order
Genre: Doom, Death Doom, Progressive, Funeral Metal.
FFO: Autumnia, Opeth, Saturnus, October Tide, Swallow The Sun.
Review By: Martha Skourteli
The first thing I check each time I get something to review is the style (we all have our personal obsessions obviously) and the country. Through the years that I’ve been listening to this music I have ended up expecting specific things from specific countries, but of course this doesn’t limit my expectations and in the end it doesn’t affect the result of what I like or what I’m writing. It’s only a way to get an idea about what’s coming. Ukraine is among the countries where I have found some bands that I include among my very favorites, with songs that always have a place in my lists. I wonder if they can become more.
Mental Torment originate from Kiev, Ukraine and they’ve been part of the doom metal scene since 2009. They have gone through numerous line-up changes, and a long 5 year break, but luckily for us they decided to return and show what they deserve.
Their second album is titled Ego:Genesis and it will be released on the 29th of September through Metallurg Music.
Ego:Genesis contains 7 beautifully shaped gems. Checking their biography, while I was listening for the first time, I found it funny reading that the first attempt to create a band was by people that were “weak in instruments”. I’m sure they probably didn’t think or realize back then that people evolve, skills are developed and improve and you never know if one day you might compose some very nice songs that will make people love your music.
Acceptance. The minute the music starts flying in the room you know that there’s something great here. The first thing you hear is an atmospheric piano melody in the intro which is followed by the explosion of guitars with growling vocals. I have to say that the guitars are an endless source of melodies in all 7 songs, helping build the environment, where all emotions the band wants to express bloom. The vocals are moving from growling to spoken (it happens again later on) with both styles being very well fitting. In this first song we find progressive metal touches that appear more down the way.
New Days Old Wounds starts with an incredible melody that… well…I can’t get out of my head now. There’s a progressive sound in the style of Opeth which I believe a lot of people will like.
Untitled. Interesting title for a song that is filled with questions about a second chance really. How can you give a name to this? Absolutely dramatic intro with keyboards followed by the guitars that storm the song breathlessly. The overall feeling transmitted to the listener is pain, it’s a sore soul in despair and whoever can relate will find this song very descriptive.
Conclusion. All the suffering and mental torment finally come to an end but “Soul is immortal, it can’t be stopped”. I think the band’s name is seriously explained by this song. This is what we get in Conclusion, accompanied of course by the volume of guitars’ non stop talkativeness that is found in all songs and promise not to leave anyone unsatisfied.
The River continues in the same pattern of guitar driven sorrow with vocals that express clearly the internal pain.
Black. Another intro that stuck in my head and yet another very good creation in total. This one carries once more the progressive element we met in previous songs probably in bigger quantities. It’s definitely darker than the previous ones, I’d say probably the darkest part in the record.
Oblivion. The last track is instrumental. Closing a very good album with a beautiful piece of music that everybody’s going to love and I’m so positive about this. Almost 6 minutes of beautiful music with a magnificent atmosphere. If in our social media pages we had the option to play music in the background (some probably remember MySpace times when this was an option) I would have this song play!
It’s worth mentioning that the amazing guitars are accompanied by bass, drums and keyboards that complete the band just perfectly and the truth is that nothing sounds out of place. They definitely follow a well worked recipe that delivers a really great album.
We’re still in September and the year has provided a lot of good music. Mental Torment‘s album Ego:Genesis belongs definitely in the quality albums of 2021 and it looks like their return was worth it. Hopefully there is a future for them because they clearly have the potential and surely the skills they once thought were not there are now obvious.
As for my initial wondering about the favorite bands from Ukraine, yes, they did become more!!
(5 / 5)
