Another one man band dedicated to death doom, this time coming from Germany under the moniker Paid Charons Fare. Mourn is the first full length for the Trier musician Heiko Borkowski, and it comes out after the sample single Alone, dated 2014: the first impression was that of being in the presence of a project born with clear ideas and especially aimed at giving the sound all the characteristics that are required to the genre. Moreover, unlike other one man bands, the use of the lead guitar is always appropriate without showing particular cracks, thus allowing the melodies to take over the scene in a convincing way; both the title track and The Mourners Anthem develop mournful harmonies that make the listening rather smooth, except for some passages in clean in the second of the two tracks that still deserves some adjustment. It must also be said that, right in this track, we can see the most brilliant insights in the form of evocative lines and at the same time well memorized. After the short When Time Turns Minutes To Days, an acoustic but equally leaden track, which can remind something of the first Novembers Doom, the single Alone is played, also very good and in line with the opening track, before the convincing closing with Dead Inside, which instead touches funeral territories. Mourn is definitely a good debut, with sounds that sometimes can bring back to a well-known solo project like Pierre Laube’s Doomed, even if Borkowski tends to smooth those roughnesses that we find in the works of his compatriot. While not screaming a miracle, this first work by Paid Charons Fare is a disc of good caliber that deserves to be taken into account by fans.

2018 – GS Productions