A Lengthy, Doomy Masterwork
Bell Witch is back in 2017 with another slow-cooked work to add to their funeral-doom catalog.
Mirror Reaper is a single track, almost hour and a half long and it’s the band’s first without founding drummer/vocalist Adrian Guerra. Although Adrian’s passing is a huge loss for the metal community, much of his spirit lives on in this release. At one point in the song, the band even places in unused vocal recordings from Guerra as an homage.
Bell Witch is a two piece band that was founded on the sounds of doom metal back in 2010. They’ve released a few albums since then, and Mirror Reaper is a very unique addition to their discography. Each album of theirs, from their first demo in 2011 to Four Phantoms in 2015, contains long songs. It is indicative of the doom metal genre to have many long songs that are characterized by slow builds, but Mirror Reaper takes that to a whole new level.
The album ebbs and flows from ambient, to gothic, to intense as the listener moves through the one hour and 23-minute epic. It is difficult to get through a full listen because of the sheer length, but know that the music definitely captivates. Doom metal is not usually known to go through so many changes in one song, but “Mirror Reaper” has that skill in spades. The fact that Bell Witch may have to remember and play this whole thing live is impressive in itself.
“Mirror Reaper” starts with a lonely echoing guitar until drums and distortion come into the mix at around two and a half minutes, and vocals don’t come in until about seven minutes through the song. All in all, it slowly adds elements, and slowly takes them away in a bunch of 10-minute cycles throughout. From that seven-minute mark on, we don’t get back to a quiet base until about 17 minutes in. Although most of the quiet bits are only one guitar that seems to be just noodling notes and chords, it does have a very haunting aspect to it. It almost makes you feel like you’re never really alone.
About a quarter of the way through the song, we get a glimpse of some choral vocals. This may be the coolest part of the entire album, as the church choruses sound incredibly beautiful while giving off the core feeling of imminent doom. The voices come back later in the song, but this time they’re met with some clean vocal lines from one of the band members. That really creates an interesting dynamic and makes for a fuller ambient tone on the album.
The last 10 minutes may be the most fun and active to listen to. The band throws every element they have out there and finishes the song on a real sensitive note. Much how the album started, the end of it has the echo chamber feel of a church hall. It is a long journey to get to this ending though. The album/song does well in providing breaks and changes, but there is a point where this song is simply too long to take anything away from. Fans of Bell Witch may find this memorable, but the casual metal fan may not be as enthusiastic about the song length, or the effort to go in and find the great parts.
Mirror Reaper is powerful. It evokes many emotions and is able to string itself together nicely given its daunting length. The album succeeded in upholding Bell Witch’s reputation, but it may waver in attracting any new listeners to the band or the genre. Although beautiful, it’s difficult to label this album as one with replay value. However, Bell Witch still accomplished a great deal with this work and it should not go unnoticed.
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