Album Review: Conjurer – Mire

Label: Holy Roar Records

Release Date: 9th March 2018

Genre: Prog Metal

The frenzied sound of Conjurer is reflected in all they do, from their chaotic live shows to the desperate, impassioned music they have made on Mire. Hailing from the Midlands, born out of a passion to make music that sounds like Gojira and The Black Dahlia Murder, Conjurer have brought a debut album so gorgeous yet completely filthy, sludgy and nasty to life.

Opening up with ‘Choke’, a statement of intent fueled by rough growled vocals and a chugging rhythm section, the listener is beaten down by the changes of speeds, styles and pace. This song is a stand out moment of a brilliant album due to the exceptional relentless roars that bring it to a close.

Technicality ebbs and flows through Mire with the drumming of Jan Krause powering it on and never failing to astonish. The sudden turns of pace melding with the savagery in the vocals makes this album an adventure, exploring the very best of the metal that influences this young yet wise beyond their years group of musicians.

The sludgy, dark, brooding riffs are a staple of Conjurer’s similar to the impassioned duel vocal roars of Dan Nightingale and Brady Deeprose. The face one makes when listening to the dense chords littered around Mire and sprawling soundscapes is one reserved for the God’s of metal music yet that’s the level of quality we’re talking about from songs like ‘Hollow’ and ‘The Mire’.

Beauty isn’t something often related to the kind of music that makes you feel like you’re being savagely beaten, but the grand soundscapes that are explored in songs like ‘Thankless’ take you on journeys to the abyss. This leads in to ‘Retch’, a song with a name as charming as the dirty, disgusting vocals that feature all over it.

Citing a range of bands from Employed To Serve to Converge as their influences, Conjurer try their hand at a variety of styles from doom to death to black metal with a plethora of parallels to be drawn between them and the very best of the genre, I’m talking Mastodon levels of brilliant. However they never sound unoriginal or derivative, the songs, ‘Hadal’ and ‘Thankless’ clock in at the 8 minute mark but fly by as they practice innovation and experimentation in the sounds they make.

Not a second on this album is wasted as it tiptoes around being truly perfect. Conjurer rip into you and tear you apart but do so with a stunning selection of songs. The youth and vibrancy of this band is a treat, an exciting glimpse into what’s to come from the new wave of British metal, a scene thats return to form I embrace with open arms.

Mire will be released worldwide via Holy Roar Records on 9th March 2018.

Rating: 9/10

Recommended Track: Thankless and Retch

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