Persistence In Mourning / Vomir - Self Titled [Ominous Silence Records - 2010]This C40 split brings together a side a piece from Oklahoma City based doom crawlers Persistence in Mourning and unmoving/unrelenting French HNW master Vomir- it’s a strange mix, but each side mangers to complement each other rather nicely making this a very worthwhile split. The black pro printed tape comes in a very fitting black wrap around card case that seals with velcro. And inside along with the tape you find a glossy printed, but gloomy double sided inlay detailing the tracks details and on the other side is a murky picture of blacked figure like mass which of course is very fitting for the pained and doomed sonics inside. The Persistence in Mourning sides up first and it features three tracks in all that run between just under the six minute mark to just over the seven minute mark a piece. Each track here features extremely guttural and pained vocals over a slowed to mid paced doom metal backing that mixes in elements of gloom hazed psychedelics, and grim, seared and atmospheric noise grains. Each track here nicely balances pained and violent stance, with jagged unwell dreaminess and a seared moodiness. And at times surprising harmonic edges appear like the sombre yet tuneful rise of the last track Stinking Of Fever- which started out all backward voices, guttural vocals and atmospheric noise sears, before the dreamy, doomed and harmonic guitar refrain drops in. Onto the second side and this of course is the Vomir side , and the brutal/ unforgiving French man offers up a single untitled track that comes in at just under the nineteen minute mark. The track slumps in with a mid-paced juddering ‘wall’ of black static thicken tone- which has this odd slightly droning seashore texture running through it. Vomir unfolds the 'wall' over it’s nearly twenty minutes run in a punishing yet slightly dreamy way- it’s feels like you’ve been beaten to near death, and now you keep slipping in and out blacked unconscious drifts; you see in pain your somehow darkly spaced out too. This is one of the more special tracks I’ve heard from Vomir in a while, I really like the way he’s sticking to his unrelenting HNW guns, but also putting something oddly soothing and blackly doomed deep in the tracks make-up. So in finish off this is a very sleek yet grimly presented split with both projects sides been very worthwhile in their own right, yet also they compliment each other very well too. Thankfullly this has a slightly large edition then many HNW related tapes with 100 copies in all been available. Roger Batty
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