Mord'A'Stigmata: Dreams of Quiet Places (Album review)

Mord'A'Stigmata - Dreams of Quiet Places
Release date: 4/4/2019
Label: Pagan Records
By: Xenia Kromann


Mord'A'Stigmata is a band that has been out there for almost fifteen years. A lot of inspirational music has come from their ever-blooming polish black metal to haunt us where other releases do not. But today the time has come for another of those releases and this is our review of their fifth full-length album "Dreams of Quiet Places". 

The album is a follow-up to 2017's release "Hope" that exposed the band to the global limelight. The new release was recorded, mixed and mastered at Nebula Studio earlier this year, and around the same time, they announced their first European tour that consists of twelve stops over this whole month. With this new release and their first European tour on the road, there could for sure be some new and old material in Live. I will definitely take my trip to the show at Stengade, Copenhagen on April the 16th.

'Between Walls of Glass' is the albums opening track. This is one of the longest songs on the album, which really fits with how it begins. I definitely have a weakness for atmospheric sounds and what sounds like it. Here there is three opening minutes of perfection and with the purest tones that go directly into the soul. Sadly, all my wishes and aspirations for what I've just heard was no longer. The sound of empty drums swept it all away and it all turned into a full and wide number with the legendary acquaintance we have heard from the band before. The song continues in the same direction all the way and the through-going guitar sound ends the song in its fading ways. 'Exiles' starts out with a doom-ish sound too it. The level of energy is massive from the very beginning and it defines what direction this album is heading towards. Vocals are not that exciting but they fit with the instrumental atmospheric sound there is on the album. On to third and longest track 'Spirit Into Cristal', that has these very distinct drums that go through a large part of the track and makes the sound more treble and electronic in its tones. Describing the vocals, that throughout the song changes a whole lot, and starts with a more echo sound then develops itself into some deeply depressed atmospheric sound that is highly emotive. As a whole, it sounds flat and gives the listeners a feeling as if it was thrown on the album at the last second.

Mord'A'Stigmata

What is to be the middle track 'The Stain' kickoff silently with yet another focus on the drums from the introduction. The doom-ish sound appears again which has a heavy effect on most of the album, and in combination with the drums, it is a sound that there is through a part of their other releases. This number is instrumental but through half of the number, it expands to whispering which gives an incredibly strong and solid sound, making this radio short number to the best of this record. 

'Void Withing' is filled with incredibly deep and evocative vocals that are a big part of this song. All the instruments build up around it and make it, it is own. This one is an incredibly powerful song that contains a repetitive and addictive guitar sound, which together created this unique post-black metal sound band through time. 'Into Soil' are next up, and with a discordant guitar, the vocals sound much like one of Behemoth's new songs. The number has a lot of electronic features in it and shows just how experimental the band is. Like the previous songs, there are many nuances and aspects that play in. Last we finish the album off with the title track 'Dreams of Quiet Places' that starts out very psychedelic and gives a very hard tone to it. It is really intense and screams of electro darkwave with a drum-pad sound that continues through the whole song and becomes almost annoying to the ear in the end.

The album was in a whole confusing even due to what their style is, and I got lost in every track. But what bothered me the most, was that there was nothing tying the songs together and it all seemed to go all sorts of directions. This album is definitely for those in favor of the more psychedelic part of black metal, and that was just not my taste. 

We give this album

Out of 6

Favorite track: The Stain
Tracklist:

1. Between Walls of Glass
2. Exiles
3. Spirit Into Cristal
4. The Stain
5. Void Within
6. Into Soil
7. Dreams of Quiet Places

Cover art by the Polish artist Lukasz Gwizdz.

Layout by P. (Cursed Art).

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mordastigmata/ 
Pagan Records Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paganrecords/

Facebook event for the show in Copenhagen:

https://www.facebook.com/events/314252599204332/