Persistence In Mourning - "Confessions Of An American Cult" (2011) [Land Of Decay]

Persistence In Mourning leads an interesting existence. As if being a funeral doom metal band from Oklahoma of all places wasn't weird enough already, this low-key one-man project has been featured on split releases with bands ranging from "harsh noise wall" act Vomir to funeral doom's prodigal sons Worship and Rigor Sardonicus. Sole member A. Lippoldt's take on the aging, largely inaccessible genre, injecting heaping amounts of noise, electronica, drone, or whatever else he might feel like including in his amorphous vision for Persistence in Mourning. Though Lippoldt has almost a dozen releases under his belt, Confessions of an American Cult, released May 30th on Locrian's own Land of Decay records, stands as second full-length recordings after The Undead Shall Rise, released in 2009.

With each new release, Persistence in Mourning moves further away from the "funeral doom metal," or even "metal," classification, and Confessions of an American Cult is a testament to the project's evolution into something unique. Where there once were heavy riffs and deep, gurgling vocals are now harsh drones and distorted, maniacal, tortured howls. The once pounding drum machine is all but non-existent, aside from brief stints in "Doomsday from the Pulpit" and "Defector Part I (Outside Looking In)." To classify this terrifying, screeching, near early industrial album as metal would be arbitrary. In fact, there's only one track on Confessions that could even be considered metal, being the industrial sludge mayhem of the aforementioned "Doomsday from the Pulpit"; the rest of the album consists of the swirling madness that surrounds modern cults.

Lippoldt's fusion of the funeral doom aesthetic with drone and early industrial has hit its current peak with Persistence in Mourning's Confessions of an American Cult. This strange, unsettling music experiment is definitely new to my ears and will accompany many late night horror novel binges. Music for serial killing sprees.

Order one of the remaining copies from Land of Decay here.

-Jon