I’ve always wanted to visit Ireland. Hell my background is 99% Irish, so I guess it’s only natural. Never wanted to go enough
to actually bother doing it though…. That being said it has only been in the last 18 months or so in which I could actually 
afford to go. Anyway, the attraction heightens with streams of strong metal bands being produced by a country not otherwise 
known for musical touch (I mean fuck, who doesn’t hate U2, right?). Posted just recently on our own www.hailmetal.com, was a
review of Primordial – The Gathering Wilderness, which if you haven’t read by now, do so or forever hold your peace! Not that
the review is that spectacular, but it should be enough to convince you to go out and get the album, which grows fonder in 
my heart day by day. The point of the last 10 lines of ramblings, however, is that like Primordial, Mourning Beloveth hails 
from Ireland. With this Irish heritage come undertones of Irish folk influences and amazingly peaceful ambiences.

A Murderous Circus is death doom, with a slow humbled sound. I was actually thinking about saying that it is “epic”, but it’s
not really. Sure there are elements of “epicness” in the music, the long heartfelt songs, thick prolonged melodies and so 
forth, but it’s not quite epic. As I said, it’s humble music with a very satisfying feel, almost as if Mourning Beloveth 
don’t want to say or do too much, but rather just let you take the music where you want. I admit that sounds a little 
strange, but again with the Irish bands, you seem to have to just hear the music yourself to really take a lot from this review.

The vocals are similarly structured to My Dying Bride’s “Turn Loose the Swans”. They are a mix of deep death vocals and 
clean vocals (not as painfully sung/mourned as MDB) but similarly despondent. They are strong, without being stellar and I 
will admit I don’t particularly enjoy the opening tracks lyrical play-off, where samples are serenaded with the real vocals,
but overall it is a more than competent performance.

Musically, each song presents something totally different to listeners. “The Crashing Wave” and “…yet everything” have the 
heaviest, most lethargic and empowering feels respectively. “The Apocalypse Machine” has simple melodies and prolonged notes with a less dejected feel and more complacent sorrow; “Nothing (the march of death)” is an ode to “malignant mortality” and “Elemental Nausea” warms into a powerful and passionate piece after an enjoyable slow acoustic opening. Notes are typical blues notes, low scale and clearly discernable riffs. Guitars play in unison and yearn for hope. Drumming maintains a slow and somber tempo typical of doom metal genre bands and although only a 5-track album, each song clocks in between 11 and 20 minutes.

I’ve listened to the album around 4 or so times now (including as I wrote this review) and this is definitely the most 
enjoyable I have found it. More so than any other genre, I find doom metal to be a function of how you feel at the time and 
what you have been recently listening to. Even some of the best doom metal can just seem like a waste of time if you aren’t 
really in the mood for it – either it feels sluggish or dull (in comparison to something like Dragonforce) or too clear and 
plain (in comparison to something like Immortal).

This is not really an album that can be judged at first listen (for your typical metal fan at least). It must be listened to
without an on-edge mindset, in particular doom compliant moods. For me this means calmness, serenity or the reinvigoration of
ones soul. For others it may be in a state of depression or downheartedness.

Overall, a strong album, set to impress death doom fans who are open to bands not necessarily regarded as classics or even 
people who aren’t overly familiar with the death doom genre, due to it’s fairly simple yet effective composition.