Longing Maw - Hope
Dear Ten GK
I am sitting at my desk (in my cell) staring at a pile of books on the floor. There is not a bible among them. “Maybe you should talk to God instead.” They were the first words that were spoken to me here. I will never forget them. I gazed at my open palms, and imagined playing a standard 8th note groove, and I recalled thinking that morning, that not only will I never see a drum kit again, but I may never hear a beat again. So thankyou for this amazing opportunity.
The album you sent me to write about was the debut EP from Longing Maw titled Hope. Before I get into the music, please let me share with you a poem by Emily Dickinson that I have pinned on the wall in my cell:
"HOPE" IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS
THAT PERCHES IN THE SOUL
AND SINGS THE TUNE WITHOUT THE WORDS
AND NEVER STOPS - AT ALL
AND SWEETEST - IN THE GALE - IS HEARD
AND SORE MUST BE THE STORM -
THAT COULD ABASH THE LITTLE BIRD
THAT KEPT SO MANY WARM
I'VE HEARD IT IN THE CHILLEST LAND
AND ON THE STRANGEST SEA
YET - NEVER - IN EXTREMITY,
IT ASKED A CRUMB - OF ME.
Sometimes things like this happen, weird fate like acts, and I don’t know why because I do not deserve them. The poem by Emily is actually the first track (Hope) on this brilliant EP. The words are delivered in a spoken word format that is dark and menacing with ambient soundscapes that envelop you in a swirling motion that is lost in nothingness. It is like the gates to the depths of hell are opening and I am walking through them. When I hear this I feel something looming, something looking at me; and it is not the little bird that sings a tune without words, perched in my soul.
Hope is not a good thing for a man that may never see a live band again. Damn, I’d love to see Longing Maw.
What I like about the EP is the feeling of helplessness and damn fucking gloom. I close my eyes regularly in prison, just so that I can see clearly, and this is the sound of my thoughts. They don’t belong here! The second track Bone Wings of a Broken Angel opens nice and doomy, with electric drum rolls that sounds great. It has a gothic edge to it that I really respond to. You certainly can’t feel much light at all here. And there is an Alice in Chains type riff that weaves in and out of passages that is rather haunting. Towards the back end of the track I really like that solo part just before the drums lift off, and the vocal shift is amazing. It is what I like to call the ‘’longing for pain vocal delivery.’’
The guitars on Hope have a nice ‘filthy reverb covered in tar’ quality to them, and that is telling on the third track Scum/Saviour. There is a bit more pace to this track though. At this point on the 26 minute EP, I started to think back to the poem, and that it is a quick journey through darkness, despair and great loss. The EP rounds out with Nadir, and the utter doom here is telling as well; there is an utter contempt for colour. The rhythm section is locked in, and the bass sounds like someone has wrapped a large rubber band around my neck and is plucking it really fast, while choking me at the same time.
I love this, and thankyou for allowing me to be a part of this project. I can’t wait to absorb more of what you send me.
CHARLES BOBBINS-LASKEY JNR
Thank you Charles, and this is a great first review for you. Longing Maw is Nathan Glover from Graveir, Robin Stone and Aaron Worboys. We here at Ten Glorious Killers agree that this is indeed a brilliant start for this band, and it is firmly entrenched in our rolling top ten of 2022. Hope is the first release for Gutter Prince Cabal, and you can listen to Nathan discuss the exciting label concept on Jackie Smit’s Into the Necrosphere (podcast). Longing Maw certainly is music to feel worse to...