Review: Old Horn Tooth ‘Mourning Light’

I have loved London’s Old Horn Tooth since they originally hit up my Tom’s Reviews page in order to get me to review their first album, From The Ghost Grey Depths. Two years later they unleashed a twenty-minute behemoth of a song called True Death, and, as in the past, they called upon me for a review. They very generously sent me physical copies of both of those releases, with True Death coming on what is essentially a flash drive in business card form, which I had never seen prior to that.

However, with their upcoming release, there was no need to hit me up, I was going to review it no matter what, so big thanks to The Sleeping Shaman for having it on their to-do list, which brings us here, with my review for the release of Mourning Light!

The Old Horn Tooth sound was, and still is very heavy, but this time around they incorporated less of the wailing, cacophony of sound that they had achieved with the ‘Griefcase’ on past releases. Chris Jones (guitars and vocals) explains…

‘The old griefcase has been in storage, and only pops out on special occasions these days. We took the same principles though and Ollie worked a bit of digital magic to make some killer ambient noise. We had a lot more time in the studio for this album, so we managed to explore the use of real synths which was an enlightening experience.’

I know that may disappoint those of you who loved that chaotic sound, but they have indeed been able to create some excellent ambient sounds with guitar effects, and, as Chris mentioned, some actual synth work instead.

The tones are massive, the music is tight and it’s an all-around great listening experience…

There are only four tracks on Mourning Light, but none of them dip below a fourteen-minute run time, so it’s not a short album by any means. However, much like the music of Clouds Taste Satanic, those extended runtimes serve the song as a whole and never feel bloated or self-indulgent.

For example, take the title track, Mourning Light, which just passes the fourteen-minute mark. Not once does the song ever get boring, the arrangement and the songwriting is set up to avoid that, while keeping the listeners attention for each section, and each minute detail is there to compliment the riffs, the vocals, and the overall vibe. Speaking of vibe, this one also reminds me of the heavier elements of Pallbearer, a band that I absolutely adore, and because of that, its able to be emotive and just wonderful all around.

Then there’s the album opener, Precipice, a track that comes close to seventeen minutes in length. It begins with about two and a half minutes of ambient noise, which immediately brought the ‘Griefcase’ to my mind, and I was shocked to learn that it wasn’t that fabled briefcase of doom. As things progress, we get some solid riffs, a thick foundation from the rhythm section, and the excellent vocal work that fans of the band have come to expect. Unlike Mourning Light, Precipice shares more in common with Clouds Taste Satanic than it does with Pallbearer, which is shown in the section that begins right after the nine-minute mark, lasting until the end of the song.

If any of that sounds intriguing, actually, even if it doesn’t, I still urge you to give the album your time, and maybe even some of your music dollars!! The tones are massive, the music is tight and it’s an all-around great listening experience! Enjoy!!

Label: London Doom Collective | Evil Noise Recordings
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Scribed by: Tom Hanno