Album Review: Blood of Qayin by Mimorium (Spread Evil Productions)

Finnish black metallers, Mimorium, have released their sophomore album on the 21st of February 2020. This is Blood of Qayin.

Mimorium was formed in Pieksämäki (Finland) as one man project of Lord Mimorium. From the very beginning the vision was clear, to honour the golden days of Scandinavian black metal of nineties. At 2017 Mimorium started to record their debut album, Incipit Chaos. At that point Vox Malum stepped in to handle the vocal duties. Soon Incipit Chaos was released by Heathen Tribes (Germany) in 2018. Feedback of the album was positive and increased urge to play live shows, so they started to gather a full line-up from the Pieksämäki and Jyväskylä area. In no time the line-up was filled with skilled and dedicated musicians.

Mimorium are Lord Mimorium on guitar, Vox Malum on vocals, Kurjimus on guitar, Vilthor on drums and Cavus on the bass,

Blood of Qayin offers 8 tracks, or 41 minutes, of deep, brooding blackened metal. Not for the faint hearted, Mimorium go for the jugular straight from the off and rarely let go. There is a lot to enjoy on the album. The instruments are full and engrossing and the vocals rip through your ears with a nice mix of tones too. From the first note of album opener, I Am What We Are, you get a sense of the whirling savagery on offer. A booming drum beat, a thick bass line, a strong riff with imposing leads over the top building to a huge scream of vocals. From this point on the waves of metal come at you non stop, crashing against you, engulfing you in darkness.

Profane Breed and Regret Everything in You keep the pressure on with continuous powerful riffing and those drums. Wow. Speed, power and ferocity flies out of the kit releasing little earthquakes in your ears. Despite the obvious heaviness Mimorium are throwing around, the black metal edge keeps each song sounding fresh. Switches in the riff, higher pitched lead melody and differing vocal tones prevent the songs from ever sounding too similar. Regret Everything in You is an absolute favourite too. It slows things down a bit in the verses to a menacing groove that infects your body.

Left Hand of North continues the onslaught with a multi layered composition. The drums shine throughout the whole album but the foundation laid on this track by bass and drums is jaw droppingly good. The lead guitars hark back to traditional black metal as the harmonised roars excite and terrify in equal measure. Two Faced Shadow brings the groove back for an intro that instantly gets necks bending. The vocals get right down low into the gutter as the riff creates a wall of darkness that slams into you before easing off just enough to shine some melody through. Throne of Whore somehow manages to raise the heavy bar even further with a punishing intro that sees drums rain fire down on you while the guitars attack from every angle. All this brilliance and the best is yet to come.

Blood of Qayin’s penultimate track is the title track and it is a phenomenal metal song. All the good from the album comes at you in unison. Amazing drum skills, punchy riffs and a thick bass mixed with vocals that rake through you. Being a near 6 minute track there are plenty of transitions too. We move from intense black metal through to a more progressive groove led section through to heavy lead guitar melody led passages. Every listen seems to peel back a previously unheard layer too. Brilliant.

That leads us to the closing track of this excellent body of work, Hunter. Hunter is another 6 minute track and closes the album exactly as it should be closed. With another meaty monster of a track that you don’t really want to end. It offers a slightly different side to Mimorium in that there are even more rhythmic passages, even more groove mixed in with the devilishly heavy metal. The track slows down regularly to allow the huge thumping drums to penetrate your very being as the guitars mix between banging out riffs to blazing melody. It’s another cracking track and a fitting ending to an album that you just can’t fail to enjoy. Brilliant dark and heavy, Mimorium have released an absolute banger that should propel them to the front of the line for quality modern black metal bands with a traditional edge.

Grab yourself a digital copy from the band here or a physical copy from here. You won’t regret it.

Mimorium Links

Bandcamp – Facebook – Instagram – YouTube