Mournful Cries
Mournful Cries is a short record with heavy moods. Saint Vitus need only six songs to fill the room with distorted chords, firm bass and Wino's worn voice. There is more movement here than those ingredients suggest, though. The band regularly gives its familiar doom sound a rolling pulse without losing the darkness that holds the album together.
The Creeps makes a quick entrance. Its loose, almost garage rock energy provides a useful contrast with the longer pieces that follow. Dragon Time slows things down again. Broad chords and troubled singing give its fantasy subject enough weight to make it more than a strange story among the everyday misery.
That misery becomes direct on Shooting Gallery. Its force comes from the connection between Wino's rough delivery and Dave Chandler's restless guitar work. The voice sounds human and exhausted, while the guitar pushes the tension higher. Wino also plays guitar here, giving the performances extra room and substance. It is a modest expansion of a simple sound.
The main limitation lies in the songs themselves. Not every track has the immediate identity of the best material on Born Too Late. Listeners with little patience for repeated riffs and slow changes will find few new ways into the music. Saint Vitus develop their established approach without changing its basic shape.
What carries the record is conviction. The production allows the instruments to sit together more naturally, and the running time keeps the gloom from stretching endlessly. Mournful Cries does not need to be the band's greatest album to succeed. It is solid, dirty doom played with life, with a singer who gives the heavy music a recognisable human face.
