MIZMOR
Prosaic
PROFOUND LORE
US black metal’s cult miserablist gets comfortably numb
The brainchild of one-man misery-maelstrom A.L.N. (aka Liam Neighbors), Mizmor has attracted many admirers to its irascible buffets of black metal, sludge and doom. Sadly, the prophetically dubbed Prosaic extends these amalgams into the realms of anaesthesia, as characterless distortiondrenched drudges and tremolo-picked bursts trade off across four largely interchangeable cuts. While 2016’s Yodh and 2019’s Cairn were often brutal, gruelling affairs, unrelenting in their depictions of lethargy and loneliness, this outing feels limp and lifeless, like mudwrestling with a corpse. A.L.N.’s vocals remain convincing expressions of existential torment, but how Prosaic cries out for the thoughtful abstraction of Dialetheia, his haunting collaboration with ex-Sorceress bassist Andrew Black, or Pareidolia, the hypnogogic closing cut from Mizmor’s risk-taking 2022 EP, Wit’s End. ■■■■■■■■■■