MORNE is a Sludge/Post-Metal band from Massachusetts, USA. Formed in 2005, this is the band’s fifth full-length album, and it is has four songs. The title track is first. There is a long, cold build-up to the main riff, which is slow, and powerful. The picture that the band paints is one of desolation and pain, and the harsh vocals are sterile but also filled with emotion. There isn’t a great deal of variation or change in the song, but the point is still made. “Memories Like Stone” is a bit faster in pace but still pushes that frigid, hopeless sound, which grows deeper and darker as it moves. The hole that it begs you to peer down seems endless, and there is no bottom.

“Wretched Empire” has a thick and dissonant sound, like how you might feel locked in solitary for weeks on end. After periods of isolation and loneliness, your mind begins to wander to more nefarious thoughts. The main rhythm stays steady while the vocals pour angry drippings on top that flows downward over it. The lengthy “Fire and Dust” closes the album. The mesmerizing nature of the music is more noticeable here. The riff plods along like a woolly mammoth roaming icy plains in the north for months, without any change in scenery, and the vocals push with a constant ache, and a constant pain that cannot be shaken.

This is one album that does not even hint at catharsis, or absolution. Whatever tomb you managed to build for yourself will be the one that you will lay in, eternally. There are equal amounts of pain and suffering on the album, along with a deep depression that medication cannot cure. The fade-out at the end is like your will to live slowly draining away, and although you muster up enough strength for a last-minute fight, it is useless, because once that hole is opened, your fate is sealed.