Album : Mamiffer - Mare Decendrii

Band: Mamiffer
Album: Mare Decendrii
Label: SIGE Records
Year: 2011









Tracklist
01. As Freedom Rings
02. We Speak in the Dark
03. Blanket Made of Ash
04. Eating Our Bodies
05. Iron Water
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From the novel Heart of Darkness come the dying words of a madman, “The horror, the horror.” Joseph Conrad wrote his defining work of fiction based on the horrific account of one man and his grizzly trip into the literal heart of darkness, wherein horror by means of malaria and human desecration found a home. On Mare Decendrii, the latest release from Mamiffer, the tension is made to watch as the suspense holds a knife to horror’s throat. This is one spooky, unflinching album.

Given the history of the duo behind Mamiffer, the album shouldn’t come as much of a surprise – it’s heavy yet refined. Aaron Turner, of Isis and Old Man Gloom reputation, combined creative powers with Faith Coloccia, graphic dark artist, to produce this love child of doom and gloom, an album that finds itself floating in the same black waters as Bohren & Der Club of Gore and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

What sets this album apart are the favored strings and vocals, a kind of mystic experience of chanting monks, and sudden, terrifying screams (it was late, the room was dark – the air was heavy with We Speak in the Dark, when suddenly a short, primal scream sends me scrambling for the lights). Mamiffer’s moody As Freedom Rings is a thirteen minute piano heavy, constantly climbing, well crafted organic theme for night time redwood trekking. Alone. In the fog.

Mamiffer collaborated with many interesting names to produce Mare Decendrii – co-produced by Bjork and collaborations with Sera Timms of Black Math Horseman, Joe Preston of Thrones, and Brian Cook of Russian Circles, to name just a few, the album is one of the rare ones that feel complete. It’s hard to imagine how much time went into the crafting of this work of musical fiction, mainly because it’s hard to believe that the musicians would have the patience to sit and steadily etch it out. It’s the barrel aged whiskey of instrumentals – it’s dark, it burns like hell going down, and it leaves you filled with what Brett Easton Ellis would call a “nameless dread,” but damned if it doesn’t feel good.

With only five tracks, the album rubs up against the sixty minute mark, the longest track being just over twenty. Worthy of study, reliably pessimistic (with hope strewn about), Mare Decendrii is not your father’s reading material; it’s a different take on the journey into the heart of darkness.
- Wideeye.org

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