Listening to The Mosaic Window’s Plight of Acceptance (Willowtip Records) I can’t help but think of a particular scene from The Crow. Yeah, the one film that depends on how you feel about Dark City may be Alex Proyas’ sole seminal work. Our antagonist Top Dollar laments that the thrill of Devil’s Night is gone and proclaims, “The problem is, it’s all been done before…” and why that’s the best reason to quit.

Damn that really summarizes the feeling whenever I get a one-man Black Metal project tossed across my desk.

 

Like usual with these sorts of outfits there’s rarely if ever a willingness to venture outside the self-serious drab atmosphere of old. Just tremolo picking and processed sounding drums at full speed for too long because God forbid, we dare venture outside of the realm of kvlt otherwise some corpse painted weirdo will yell at us online. Shit, the aversion to variety manifests in song titles like “Demon,” “Furnace” and “Nails of Holy Origin.” The Catholic in me is just as terrified as when I caught the trailer for The Exorcist: Believer.

 

But there is a light in the darkness after all. Plight of Acceptance lets us know that beneath the monochrome, it turns out Andrew Steven Brown is quite the lead guitar player. “Spiritual Intoxication” is less interested in being grim as much as it is in trying out Morbid Angel or vintage Metallica style exercises in guitar dynamics. Unfortunately, it feels a bit too late, but I appreciate the effort. The opening to “The Haunting that Follows” also suggests a more interesting – maybe even progressive path – that The Mosaic Window could follow in future releases.

 

For all my belly-aching there are elements to admire here. Brown is beyond talented, but he can move on from the conventional black metal trappings.

 

Buy the album here:

https://themosaicwindow.bandcamp.com/album/plight-of-acceptance

 

6 / 10

HANS LOPEZ