Melanculia
Post Mortem
Noot Moon Records / Bat Cave Productions
Despite a title that’s presented in lowercase, there’s nothing underwhelming about Melanculia’s latest album, ‘Post Mortem’. The brainchild of Nino Sable, an artist born on the sun-kissed coast of Portugal, then uprooted to the dark industrial heartland of Germany, this is a record that conveys the sense of loss that journey created. Featuring fourteen achingly beautiful songs, this is a very intimate album that finds Nino stripping away the protective layers that surround his psyche until all that’s left is pure, raw emotion. The themes of longing and loss that characterise this album will be familiar to readers of Devolution, and it creates a conspiratorial feel, as if Nino is singing directly to us. There’s a pared-back nature to these tracks; guitar and vocals are embellished with skeletal keys, yet the likes of ‘Dark Days’ are totally captivating and weave a hypnotic spell over the listener, and its sorcery that’s hard to break. Once ‘Post Mortem’ sucks you in, there’s really no exit point until the refrain of haunting closer ‘Imago’ fades into the ether. An album that finds Melanculia dissecting a traumatic time of life, rather than being an ending, ‘Post Mortem’ is a moment of rebirth.
https://www.facebook.com/melanculia
Review by Peter Dennis