What a great year already! You have your new Earth, we are awaiting Roadburn in spring, and here you have Mühr, hailing from Holland actually. I write ‘actually’, because if you would have asked me a couple of years ago if anything noteworthy or amazing comes out of Holland music wise, I probably would have answered with a big fat no. But luckily we have The Devil’s Blood, Vanderbuyst, Urfaust and now Mühr. I was introduced to these Dutch doomsters via Stonerobixxx great blog, and I have Mühr’s EP on repeat ever since. Why? I ‘ll tell you.
Shepherd / Blood consists of two tracks, 24.2 minutes in duration. Shepherd opens really calm, and once the monster riff sets in, this creature named Shepherd comes alive slowly. The first spin around, you’ll notice the amount of effort that was put into recording this EP. The reverb is lush and wonderful, and the voice comes as a surprise. The vocals are not dark as hell as you would expect maybe, but fairly high-pitched and, for lack of a better word, clear. The riff is what it’s all about in this first track, and the band makes perfect use of the sound effects to create a good, mysterious atmosphere. It’s not necessarily dark, and I’m sure listeners could name a couple of influences, or bands that will remind them of the sound that Mühr is developing, but at the moment I can’t easily name one. Maybe Orthodox, or a radio friendly Sunn O))). During the track, the riff transforms into something a lot friendlier, and the last minute the bass fades the riff nicely out.
Blood opens not unlike an Om track, and here the vocals are used even more effectively than on the first track. A lot of reverb on Blood too, and this is typically a track you have to experience, indeed like an Om track. The guys of Mühr are going for atmosphere, and they do it perfectly. I really liked the artwork by the way, done by Mories (of Gnaw Their Tongues, and Aderlating fame). So, to sum it up, this is a very fine release, and I honestly cannot imagine one listener being disappointed by this release. So, show Mühr some support and go buy their (first?) EP. And hope for a nearby show. There is not a lot of coverage on either Mühr or this album, and that surprises me.
You can watch them live here: YouTube
Both tracks can be checked on their below MySpace. You can order the vinyl version for € 10 or the mp3 version for any price (see their bandcamp page). Released on the 18th of October 2010.
Review Written By Sandrijn van den Oever
9 / 10
Muhr @ Myspace
Muhr @ Bandcamp Muhr @ Facebook
Sandrijn, Friend, no so negative, what about Spoiler (Troy Torino now a days, Astrosoniq, the Machine, Toner Low, Sungrazer, 7zuma7, Gorefest and many more, yes even in our small country fine fine music is made
This one was ok, I like doom but not the atmospheric stuff too much. Long doom songs like the ones that were on this album are comparable to the progressive rock of the 70s – where it tends to get a bit to entranced with itself, and goes on and on for seemingly no reason. Still a decent album, but it is hard for me to listen to 30+ minutes of droning 'melodies'
-K-