Em Sinfonia

In Mourning Symphony (Martyr)
by Martin Popoff

Maybe being from Chicago has given Broken Hope’s Brian Griffin his uniquely American Trouble-drowned doom perspective, but nevertheless, it’s strange hearing a jackhammercore guitarist like him get all weepy and progressive. And refreshing it be, cos what happens here is that Griffin finds seven lost soulmates who share this same unlikely vision, adding violins and female vocals, to a coterie of four long tracks that are like prog rock, doom, Goth, and death all rolled into one grave. And they’re also trying that My Dying Bride-derived Morgion thing, velocities chopped to an aimless trudge just because. So each track is like a stroll, with new sights along the way, 99 ways to die, and at least 150 reasons to be down. Quite the imposing encampment, but hey, it’s summer!
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