Taipei Metal

Review: Mockingbird - S/T EP

With a name as innocuous as Mockingbird, you just know this band is setting you up to catch you off guard with some teeth shattering, creeping, crawling heaviness, and that is precisely what they do. Their self-titled EP kicks off with “Puma Punca”, with doom riffs so heavy they sound like they were constructed from god particles and shouted vocals that would make Scott Kelly curl up into the fetal position. Stoner doom worship oozes through the speakers with a mantra-like vocal delivery. This is proof positive that heavy doesn’t have to be technical, and takes the Sabbath school of riff riding to scary new locales of unseen subterranean terror. Or you could just say it’s High on Fire slowed down a few RPMs.

“Nephilim” slowly wears bone to dust, sanding it with every ounce of existence’s collective force bearing down. Here Mockingbird proves it is a cut above the crowd of heavy bearded stoner bands. Every aspect of the sound is single minded in its purpose of delivering skull smashing weight; a slow, methodical pounding with a monolithic slab of universe enveloping low end sludge with the highs scooped out like an empty eye socket.

“Burdens” is a seventies-inspired riff out with aspects of St. Vitus, Neurosis, Deadbird, and Rwake. It’s a fuzzed out beating caught in a groove. The listener gets a real sense of being in the studio with this band of like minded and focused individuals pursuing a common goal in the most natural and heavy way possible. Layered low end vocals come from a place of real horrors. There’s nothing fake or campy about it. It’s inspired by reality rather than cartoonish horror.

Lastly, “Pompeii” gets right into the heart of the song, with the vocals starting right from the outset of the track. It’s the soundtrack to the fall of civilizations. Whenever an empire falls, this is what should be playing in the background. At this point, there is no room to wonder what effect the band is intent on tendering. It’s as clear in its aim as a black hole is in swallowing sunbeams. The seventies riffage is again prevalent, almost taking the sound into prog rock territory—Alex Lifeson on a diet of dark matter. If this is what Mockingbird can do with a four-song EP, shudder to think what the full length will be like.