Boston's MORNE Release "Memories Like Stone" Video; KURT BALLOU-Produced Album Out Friday
November 2, 2023, a year ago
Boston, Massachusetts post-metal quartet, Morne, have unveiled a video for "Memories Like Stone", from their Engraved With Pain full-length. The video comes on the eve of the record's official release via Metal Blade Records.
Engraved With Pain is a moment of grim triumph, as rooted in Celtic Frost as in Ministry, still somehow extrapolated from the gods Black Sabbath and characteristic of no one so much as themselves. Spacious, crushing, darkly thoughtful enough to be progressive but never so indulgent as to lose sight of its core message, the offering was recorded with legendary producer Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts.
The new video for Engraved With Pain's contemplative second song, "Memories Like Stone," was directed by Hillarie Jason. Offers guitarist/vocalist Miłosz Gassan, "This song particularly, is heavily loaded with personal stuff. I don't want to get too deep with it. It's about a loss and the complicated feelings that come with it. We built it with simple riffs, heavy drums, and a lot of guitar feedback that [guitarist] Paul [Rajpal] added a very moving guitar solo to. People should play it through their headphones or however they want and take it as they will. I think music should be listened to and absorbed without any explanations or directions from the author."
The stylistic pyroclasm of Morne's bleak, extreme but reachable metal did not happen overnight. Since their 2009 debut album, Untold Wait, the quartet has made simple categorizations like "doom" or even "metal" laughable, and their latest and fifth full-length, fittingly titled Engraved With Pain, refines their attack to a level toward which even 2018's To The Night Unknown could only hint.
Playing out across four chapters in forty-minutes, the album sees the veteran outfit crafting rhythmic tension and lung-squeezing atmospheres as Gassan emits layered guttural shouts that speak to inner and outer crises. Engraved With Pain makes its title believable, and from its eponymous opener through "Memories Like Stone," "Wretched Empire," and "Fire And Dust," it carries humanity individually and collectively through the realities of its decline.
Engraved With Pain will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats this Friday, November 3. Find pre-orders here.
Tracklisting:
"Engraved With Pain"
"Memories Like Stone"
"Wretched Empire"
"Fire And Dust"
"Wretched Empire" video:
Morne lineup:
Milosz Gassan - Guitar, Vocals
Paul Rajpal - Guitar
Morgan Coe - Bass
Billy Knockenhauer - Drums
(Photo - Hillarie Jason)