Mother Of Graves – “Through The Pale Shade”

Profound Lore

Mother Of Graves is one of the breakout doom bands of the decade, and it’s been heartwarming, as warm as our cold metal hearts can get, to see the Midwest masters of morose get the nationwide scene seal of approval. Their debut album, Where The Shadows Adorn was released on their local indie label Wise Blood Records in 2022 and was met with a rabid reception in underground circles, helping them land their next record, The Periapt Of Absence, on Profound Lore two years later. Now, for the third October in an even-numbered year in a row (a very KISS move), Mother Of Graves is set to release their next album The Light That Keeps Us, and have unleashed the lead single, “Through The Pale Shade.”

In some ways, the band isn’t straying too far from what fans have become familiar with, but rather operating at the next step up of the model. You’ve got your ominous keyboard intro easing into the main riff, before vocalist Brandon Howe growls into the first verse. His low-pitched screams crawl alongside the band’s melodies in a well-studied death-doom crossover, while keeping the lyrics decipherable compared to other extreme acts. “Through the pale shade of our solitude and pain, dissolving the winter that befouled my heart,” he howls as the song’s centerpiece.

The Light That Keeps Us will arrive on October 16th, just in time for black denim jacket season, and “Through The Pale Shade” offers a six-minute somber taste of what Mother Of Graves does best: creating patient doom metal journeys that are still traversable for non-heshers.