Looking back on the early years of The 3rd and the Mortal, it’s not that easy to see why they were considered so groundbreaking, but that’s only because of the host of bands that arrived in their wake, emulating with varying degrees of success their meandering, murky guitar sound, adventurous song structures and accessible but technically proficient female vocals- provided here by the indispensable Kari Rueslåtten, sounding sad, distant and peerless.
An EP, “Sorrow” introduces their early doom metal sound, with a muddy production accenting drooping guitars and reining in cackling feedback. Reverb-laden melodic lines draw equally from shoegaze wall of sound and navel-gazing doom. Kari’s vocals rest squarely on the subtle and complex bass lines, anchored to the rhythm in a sea of distortion, crying out from a place of emotional and musical isolation. The title track breaks with the rest of the album with classical guitar and unusually sullen vocals, having a more medieval courtly love sort of atmosphere.
With their epic compositions and unusually noisy, darkly psychedelic sound, The 3rd and the Mortal would influence several acts, laying the groundwork for bands as disparate as In the Woods and The Gathering. It all starts with “Sorrow.”
– James Slone
VITALS:
Release: 1993
Label: Head Not Found
Avantgenre: Murky Gloom Doom
Duration: 20:28
Origin: Norway
Official site: http://mortal.info/
Review online since: 21.10.2007 / 01:53:04
TRACKLIST:
01 – Grevinnens Bonn
02 – Sorrow
03 – Ring Of Fire
04 – Silently I Surrender
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