Lost Inside - Mourning Wept Beside Me

For those of you that don’t already know, I’ve recently become extremely active in the depressive black metal (DBM) scene. In fact, it’s become one of my all-time favorite genres. My first DBM artist (like almost everyone else) was Xasthur. There is a large number of people out there that consider themselves “true” fans of the DBM genre that hate Xasthur because of the amount of success he had during the 15 years of his existence. Personally, Xasthur is one of my favorite “bands” out of all the music that I’ve ever heard (sharing the top of my list with Opeth, Breaking Benjamin, Darkthrone, Mutiny Within, Led Zeppelin, and Ludwig van Beethoven). If you want me to go on and explain depressive black metal in detail and why people like it, read all my Xasthur album reviews, because it’s annoying to feel that I have to repeat it every time I review a DBM record.

Recently, my interest in DBM has exploded as well as the amount of DBM bands in my collection. Some of the DBM bands that have been standing out to me the most include Blutklinge, Woods of Desolation, Original Sin, Abyssic Hate, Velvet Cacoon, A Cloud Forest, and most of all, Lost Inside. This was the first album that I heard by Lost Inside and I’m glad because it is the best I’ve heard out of them so far. The DBM bands that I seem to enjoy more often are the melodic ones instead of the more noisy ones. Lost Inside generally sticks to the melodic side of things, which is what got me hooked on this album.

Once this album has a strong grip on you, it continues to pull you through a seemingly endless tunnel of depressing and grieving tranquility. Your journey through the tunnel lays the heavy blankets of loss and anxiety which then allow you to sink down into a pool of relieving peacefulness. The best music is the music that stirs the strongest emotions within the listener, and there are few records that have as much ability to do that as this one.

There aren’t very many things at all about this album that I would say stand out as major issues. Although relatively simple, the highly-distorted but extremely soft sound of the guitars keep you engaged and never get boring. The chords that the guitars play are actually very complex and perfectly fit the definition of being “truly” melodic. The drums consist of much more than just constant blast beats; there is a lot going on within the mind of the drummer and he lays it out on this album better than on any other Lost Inside record. There is a perfect amount of bass that keeps everything balanced but isn’t overpowering. My favorite song on this album is Like a Wilted Flower for its hypnotizing guitar lines and astonishing vocals.

Overall, Lost Inside has become one of my favorite bands of all-time; and I thank this album because I couldn’t possibly have gotten a better first impression than what this record gave. The vocals are the opposite of annoying and actually have a thick layer of emotion and beauty. This is an album that I would highly recommend to everyone (especially DBM fans that haven’t heard it yet). I would give this record a score of 19/20.