- Audio CD (23 Aug 2010)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Limited Edition
- Label: Oblivion
- ASIN: B000BR6FCE
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 11,156 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A decade ago, Carl McCoy told his constituents that "I AM The Nephilim!", and then promptly scuppered his previously prolific band's reputation with one album, two singles, and about ten live shows for the next fifteen years. Leaving aside 2002's "Fallen" (a ragbag collection of unfinished demos released by his former label), "Mourning Sun" is the Nephilims first album of new material in a decade.
The familiar cliches are still familiar : pompous and humourless, big hats, old Goths writing concept albums about something important like death and the afterworld, and whatever. It's almost as if you opened the Blue Peter Goth Time Capsule from 1987. The familiar black cover, the obsidian shiny art, the strained and ornate typography, the complete lack of any visual or musical progression since 1989, and yet - it sounds timeless. As if it fell fully formed from a world without time, and was opened with the gasp of escaping air like the Well of Souls in "Raiders Of The Lost Ark".
Of course, there's more to it than that. "Mourning Sun" is immense in it's sheer black-painted balls and it's stubbornly singular vision. From the opening, ambient terror of "Shroud/Exordium", which is five minutes of inocherently threatening mumbling (the entire lyric is "Closer. Closer. Closer. Die"), to the final, bizarre Halloween Metal ProgRock of "In The Year 2525", the Nephilim's latest release is the aural equivalent of a sulkily vicious Manga film.
Musically, there's little progression from the highpoint of "Elizium". The familiar ingredients : gravel-clad vocals, shimmeringly elusive keyboard textures, driller-killer guitars and a claustrophobically intense rhythm section, are matched with McCoy's economically inhuman, cold vocals. Lyrics betray little, if anything of a personality, and more of a philosophical concept that appears to encompass fallen angels, death, eternal life, love, and God's Mighty Hand. Imagine Johnny Cash singing this.
And whilst I appear to be hard on this, it's a record I love. Like "Zoon" before it, the songs are so complex, the musical themes interwoven so dextrously and coherently, that "Mourning Sun" is less of a record, and more one fifty eight minute song in ten parts : a rock symphony if you like. Sections rise and fall with the beating of waves, musical and lyrical motifs reappear then vanish, guitars cut slices through the airwaves, and a pummelling RSI-inducing bassline ripples like a Jurassic Park monster. And then Carl McCoy's voice, seemingly oblivious to the inherent self-parodiac nature of the medium, uncurls like God giving birth or El Diablo himself going carol singing.
"LOOK UP! LOOK DOWN! LOOK! STRAIGHT INTO THE LIGHT!" he implores, like some demented murderous clown doing a variation on If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands.
And "Mourning Sun" is great. Great to the scope of it's vision, great to the achievement, and great in it's ridiculous and overblown pomposity. Move over Axl Rose, a new primadonna is in town
The familiar cliches are still familiar : pompous and humourless, big hats, old Goths writing concept albums about something important like death and the afterworld, and whatever. It's almost as if you opened the Blue Peter Goth Time Capsule from 1987. The familiar black cover, the obsidian shiny art, the strained and ornate typography, the complete lack of any visual or musical progression since 1989, and yet - it sounds timeless. As if it fell fully formed from a world without time, and was opened with the gasp of escaping air like the Well of Souls in "Raiders Of The Lost Ark".
Of course, there's more to it than that. "Mourning Sun" is immense in it's sheer black-painted balls and it's stubbornly singular vision. From the opening, ambient terror of "Shroud/Exordium", which is five minutes of inocherently threatening mumbling (the entire lyric is "Closer. Closer. Closer. Die"), to the final, bizarre Halloween Metal ProgRock of "In The Year 2525", the Nephilim's latest release is the aural equivalent of a sulkily vicious Manga film.
Musically, there's little progression from the highpoint of "Elizium". The familiar ingredients : gravel-clad vocals, shimmeringly elusive keyboard textures, driller-killer guitars and a claustrophobically intense rhythm section, are matched with McCoy's economically inhuman, cold vocals. Lyrics betray little, if anything of a personality, and more of a philosophical concept that appears to encompass fallen angels, death, eternal life, love, and God's Mighty Hand. Imagine Johnny Cash singing this.
And whilst I appear to be hard on this, it's a record I love. Like "Zoon" before it, the songs are so complex, the musical themes interwoven so dextrously and coherently, that "Mourning Sun" is less of a record, and more one fifty eight minute song in ten parts : a rock symphony if you like. Sections rise and fall with the beating of waves, musical and lyrical motifs reappear then vanish, guitars cut slices through the airwaves, and a pummelling RSI-inducing bassline ripples like a Jurassic Park monster. And then Carl McCoy's voice, seemingly oblivious to the inherent self-parodiac nature of the medium, uncurls like God giving birth or El Diablo himself going carol singing.
"LOOK UP! LOOK DOWN! LOOK! STRAIGHT INTO THE LIGHT!" he implores, like some demented murderous clown doing a variation on If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands.
And "Mourning Sun" is great. Great to the scope of it's vision, great to the achievement, and great in it's ridiculous and overblown pomposity. Move over Axl Rose, a new primadonna is in town
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is an interesting album , in that i really couldn't get in to it at first . I must admit it did stay on my shelf for a couple of months untouched and i was left slightly dissapointed and yearning for 'the good old days' as it were. I decided to stick it on my mp3 player as i was sticking all the other nephilim stuff on i thought i might aswel.I didnt realise up to that point how much Mourning Sun flows together , flows together like the Elizium album flows together , and how hard it pounds in places , unrelentless pounding not so disimiler to the Zoon album . It was like some unseen barrier had been lifted (maybe subconsiously i didn't want to like it because the rest of the origional nephs Pettit ,Yates,the Wright brothers were abcent)and i realised this is'nt that different from the Nephilim of old . The cold sorrowful atmosphere of Nephilim of old is there present and correct , even more so in places . So now i have finally capitulated to this album and it never leaves my playlist.Go buy it and give it a chance . Im not saying it will change your life but it definetly gonna be one of those albums that you will keep in your heart and enjoy for the rest of your life.......probably
PS If this doesn't satisfy your need for all things neph check out THE MANY FORMS by LAST RITES ft the Wright brothers. That is another truly great album.
PS If this doesn't satisfy your need for all things neph check out THE MANY FORMS by LAST RITES ft the Wright brothers. That is another truly great album.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I got this album at christmas I listened to it once and out it away. For a traditional FOTN like myself it was too raw, with many tracks appearing to have incessant drumming. Where was Elizium? A couple of months later I got it out for the car and listened to it, and for reasons I forget now, I listened to it again by which time I was getting hooked. This is a great album with so many layers that just do not come across straight away. It is an album, not a collection of 10 songs. Carl mixes the pace beautifully slow, fast, slow, fast with great use of harmonies. I have just bought the NFD albums, which are good, but you can see the difference. Buy this first. The artwork is as good as ever and it is constantly on in the car.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Stunning return to form
Some comeback efforts can be a bitter disappointment, a case of aping past glories in a desperate attempt to rekindle what worked 'at the time'. Read more
Published on 12 April 2009 by I. A. McFarlane
Grows on you....
I've had this since it came out, and have only just started to play it properly, wasn't that impressed on first hearing as it really doesn't grab you by the scruff of the neck and... Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2008 by B. Giles
Can I get a "hell yeah"?!!!!
The first proper FOTN studio album since "Elizium" does not disappoint.
Heavy, dark, sinister... everything you'd want is here. Read more
Heavy, dark, sinister... everything you'd want is here. Read more
Published on 21 Dec 2007 by M. Adil-smith
Just love it
As an old school FOTN fan from the late '80's like many I wasn't sure about this album but the depth of sound and the hypnotic quality that always were a feature of their live... Read more
Published on 10 July 2007 by Aislinn Peterson
Morning Sun
Morning Sun brings the long awaited return of Carl McCoy's unique contribution to Goth rock. Hailing from Hertfordshire, Fields of the Nephilim have been at the forefront of the... Read more
Published on 22 April 2007 by Laura Nixon
A Triumphant Return from Carl McCoy
When I first heard that Carl McCoy was making a new album and going under the name 'Fields of The Nephilim' I was extremely sceptical because of the blasphemy that was 'Fallen'... Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2006 by Mark Broome
Stunning
Stunning. An absolutely stunning album. This review might be a bit stilted because I am completely blown away with the qualiy of this album. Read more
Published on 23 May 2006 by M. Evans
Blinded by the Mourning Sun
This album is everything I expected and more.Beautiful soundscapes,intelligent lyrics Carl McCoy really knows his stuff. Read more
Published on 11 April 2006 by Simon
forget the past,on with the future
to all nephilim fans,the past was great but please on to the future.mourning sun is the future.I got into the nephilim rite after Earth Inferno so every album sounded fresh. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2006 by Vincenzomarcantonio
The Enigma Continues...
At Last! New material!
A very intense album, along similar lines to their 'Zoon' album. Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2006 by "swillzero"
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