Somebody could be telling the Irish doomsters Mourning Beloveth that the sun sometimes does rise up in the morning. Even over their isolated Emerald Isle. Somebody, but it would not be me, who is a strong believer that it is their perennial doom’n’gloom attitude, spurred on by the innate Irish melancholy, which makes them put out solid doomdeath slabs every three years or so. A Disease for the Ages is that album where, while offering little in a way of stylistic changes, Mourning Beloveth appealed to their dedicated, albeit small, fanbase and tightened up the ideas introduced on the previous pair of albums.

Mourning Beloveth continue to play their slow sorrowful brand of doomdeath, first introduced by My Dying Bride and Anathema, then perpetuated by Yearning and Morgion, with nowadays frontrunners of the genre listing Daylight Dies and Swallow the Sun. Mourning Beloveth can stand shoulder to shoulder with the aforementioned while crushing you with their riffs and delivering depressive melodies. To this, possibly a standard doomdeath platter, Mourning Beloveth managed to contribute a breath of diversification on A Disease for the Ages.

It is interesting how the crushing riffs in The Sickness, where the contorted pain is hitting you sideways, provide a feeble message of hope which is once and for all quashed by the gruesome lyrics. The same pounding in The Burning Man does yield, if only for a minute or two, to the clean acoustic trademark Irish melancholy, only to resolve out of this funk with ending sense-of-purpose riff. The diversity of the album is in these half-shades fleeting hopeful moments, which are nothing but illusion. In this sense it is also fitting that roaring bellows and bottomless pit growls of Darren Moore now have a counter-emphasis with guitarist Frank Brennan doing some clean Ozzy/A.A. Nemtheanga singing.

Mourning Beloveth also significantly improved, at least in my modest opinion, their song construction. While not really changing tempos, this is still some very slow stuff, they do change beats, sometimes subtly, sometimes by making a 180 degree turn. The new bass player Brendan Roche is woven into a riff alongside little acoustic (The Sickness). With such progressive, but interconnected, song twists the loose ends are tied together. It is Mourning Beloveth job to dwell on things, and they do, but somehow you don’t seem to notice. Case in point, the album’s frontrunner Primeval Rush. Starting all funeral and depressive, the melody causing to pour ashes on your head, the song suddenly finds strength with forceful chug, almost a first for Mourning Beloveth. Normally putting a lot more spaces between the chords, the band finds the way to spin this chug into a 1-2-3 doomdeath waltz, which ends in powerful double bass, also a rare feat for Mourning Beloveth. Somehow the song comes full circle and feels complete, despite the waltz riff being very reminiscent of the one used on The Apocalypse Machine from A Murderous Circus.

Not expecting to gain many new converts, A Disease for the Ages is showing Mourning Beloveth refining their solemn craft.