Genre:  Melodic Doom Metal

01 A Pain to Remember
02 Its our Own Tragedy
03 To your Deceits...Again
04 From Illusions and Jealousy
05 The Cold Solitude
06 With Every Suffering
07 Honey for my Wounds
08 Recover me in Sores

While many of Solitude Productions' artists are amongst the intermediately good artists in the Russian scene, there are a great many other artists in the country that are absolutely out of this work as far as musicianship is concerned as well as atmosphere.  Just to name a few, Autumn Rain Melancholy, Crystal Abyss, Tvangeste (now Canada), Ocean of Sorrow, Forest Stream, and Autumn amongst countless others, but sitting along the side of all these incredible artists is Mournful Gust, a project that, until now, stayed relatively under the radar.  The band initially released “She's my Grief” for a debut on Metal Force in 2000, but it went somewhat unnoticed in the Western world, even when Metalagan re-released it in 2005.  It took the band 6 years to regain their strength and release a four-track EP in 2006 called “The Frankness Eve”.  This one obviously turned some heads, especially with Solitude Productions / BadMoodMan Music, whom re-released it in April '08 with 4 other new tracks.

This time it seems the band is making noise, and deservedly so!  Mournful Gust is probably the best thing to come out of gothic/melodic/folk-laden doom metal since their counterparts in Autumn hit the scene in 1993.  “And we are Falling Leaves...” was an incredible classic, especially for a band that put up the finances to self-release an album of that caliber.  Needless to say, even in the absence of members from that project, Mournful Gust has followed suit and has added more folk qualities to the music.  Incredibly melodic and harmonious, The Frankness Eve follows a path of timeless tracks.  At any given time, you can find yourself between the worlds of Arkona, My Dying Bride, amd even Type O Negative in sparing moments.  The vocal performance is amongst the most excellent to be heard in recent memory from doom projects, a surprise as vocalist Vlad Shahin is originally from underground black metal project Vae Solis, though he does have his later experience (2004 – present) in Death Doom project Autumnia with former Mournful Gust member, Alex Glavnly, a band that has already had success via Griffin Music, and now with Solitude Productions.  The clean vocals strongly resemble that of the cleaner moments of Seraphim Shock.  Very strong, and at times even operatic.

Everything on The Frankness Eve is incredibly tightly put together.  The music, though harsh and definitely not for the lighter side of metal fans, even with traditional elements and all, has a folk, nearly fantasy quality that can't be denied.  The music that is heard fits easily with the faery-like imagery of the Prikosnovenie label, but is obviously nothing like the music they represent.  Altough, the atmosphere the band represents could possibly be compared to that of Daemonia Nymph and even Dark Sanctuary.  The sounds aren't alike, but you get the same imagery involved.  Tragic, depressive, cold, rainy, the usual scenarios very much apply with Mournful Gust, however the senses are so much more rich with this music.  The sound is, as said, timeless, and as such it will infiltrate your mind and tap into those memories.  The smell of wet dead leaves on the ground in mid-Autumn, the forest dirt, wind blowing through the trees in summer.  There are so many emotions here from so many sections of life that its hardly fathomable to describe.  Very few albums are as colorful as The Frankness Eve, ironic in a sense as the actual artwork of the album is fairly monochromatic sticking to gold / tan tones and black. 

If there's one album that you buy in the first half of '09 from this genre, this should be it.  Old school fans will even draw direct comparisons to the likes of Italy's old timers Crown of Autumn.  Classic, mystical, and heartfelt.  Excellent.