Bell Witch played a massive part in getting into not only Funeral Doom, and Doom Metal as a whole. Between that and the fact Mirror Reaper is one of my favorite albums of all-time, my expectations were pretty fucking high, but not too high, as I thought Mirror Reaper had set it too high. Thankfully I was wrong, and as things stand The Clandestine Gate is now my album of the year. Whether it's still there come November, who knows, but for now the crown is Bell Witch's. Dylan and Jesse got some massive balls too, not everyone could write a song that's 83 minutes long and then do it AGAIN

I absolutely loved this album. It's what I've been waiting on for 6 years. And the idea of it being only the first part of a whole triptych has me very intrigued by what their future ideas have in store. This though is definitely sitting in my top five of the year so far.

I'm not really a funeral doom guy aside from a few bands that you'll find out about in my comment in John Campbell's thread here in this comment section, but I do respect Bell Witch for their bass-heavy take on the genre.

Album is phenomenal as expected. Listened in the dark with headphones and my eyes closed and it took me places!

Oh man, I am a big fan of Bell Witch and I absolutely love Mirror Reaper, so the idea of what could potentially be three more Mirror Reapers has me really excited, especially since this piece sees them going into almost more experimental territory than before with their increased usage of keyboards and such. Sure, Bell Witch's music, including this album, is not something I can jam to all the time per say, but whenever I can and have the time to, it is some of the most immersive, emotional, and awe-inspiring music I can experience today IMO. This new album seems to be no exception, but it will definitely take a while before I fully process and digest this monster (and maybe review it myself). I can still totally understand and empathize with your perspectives on this record, and I enjoyed hearing your thoughts as well. That being said, I can see this being a potential AOTY contender for me. On a side note, there's this neat band called Dawn of Ouroboros that dropped a new album this past weekend, and it is quite the banger IMO. Very interesting progressive and post-black metal, kind of like Kardashev and Atoma or something. Would recommend giving it a try if you can :)

I enjoyed this album like you didn't know, in fact the 83 minutes of duration passed me like water in my hands.

I pre ordered the cassette through Profound Lore last week. I am absolutely floored from what have heard, beautiful.. heavy as fuck and majestic. I look toward to the two forthcoming chapters I saw Bell Witch in 2019 supporting the almighty Neurosis. My only criticism for their set was that they pretty much did an abridged performance of Mirror Reaper. Bell Witch in my opinion need to be headlining every tour for the audience to truly appreciate a Bell Witch performance. Having said all that I personally think Bell Witch rule

I'm more of an Epic Doom and Death Doom enby than a Funeral Doom enby, but I do like a bit of Funeral Doom every now and again. I can appreciate glacial-slow but ultra heavy riffs hitting all the sweet spots to make each individual note more cathartic. But at the same time... An hour and forty minutes feels needlessly excessive. It's a hard sell to invest that amount of time in an album, especially if I'm going to listen to it on a regular basis to get the full experience. I honestly wish more Funeral Doom bands would show a bit of restraint on album lengths, as with "Death's Threshold" by Shades of Deep Water in 2019. I feel that this is only going to appeal to the most hardcore of Funeral Doom lovers who will give this the time it deserves to take it all in, and more power to them! But for me, the new Mariana's Rest album gets the job done so much more effectively, making use of the time.

I also found this an interesting project, but I do wonder where it is going, whether the follow up pieces will also be one long suite or more traditional. Cool experiment though. Will you be checking out the new Voidceremony record? Or Lunar Chamber when it drops?

I’m interested, I’m not expecting this to top Mirror Reaper as I thought that album was beautiful. I’ll make sure to give it a chance.

thoughts on the new thantifaxath track?

Totally agree that work is solid, but being stiched and can't back go back for one part is just calling for addiction and forced engagement. I experienced that with Mirror Reaper. You are forced to be swallowed..no choice. Even as non-Metal listeners if played out loud while playing a card/board game. Which is just too much for songs being that slow/heavy enough already. 'Four Phantoms' and 'Longing' were brilliant, hope they fo the same as then. 'Longing' more towards sludge/doom, while 'Four Phantoms' getting more into (funeral). Though I honestly would call Bell Witch style as Suicidal Metal rather than Funeral, or at least Suicidal Funeral Doom, a genre on its own. Just like (The Howling Void) is classified as Symphonic Funeral Doom Metal, as their styles are very unique, quite making up a scene as a band I'd say.

I'm a fan of funeral doom and I love this and other Bell Witch albums. I ordered it right away.

Huge expectations, I loved it.

I listen to Bell Witch to help me sleep sometimes

I bought Mirror Reaper because of all the glowing reviews. I could barely get through one listen. I am a doom fan but for the most part I can't listen to funeral doom. I like Ahab but I just don't have the patience for this. I can appreciate what they do and not compromising the music they want to play. It's just not for me.

This album feels like a riddle to me. More or less Bell Witch always were kind of a riddle to me, but this album puts this feeling to the max. I mean, i practically never catch a riff or a catchy melody or one single word they use, nothing to hold on to whatsoever ... And still some days ago, when i had the possibility, i did listen to the whole thing 4 times all the way through, and i never felt like wasting my time, or being delivered with something, that i did not want to hear. Maybe i just should take even more time to let it grow on me, Bell Witch practically never clicked with me on first listen, but later, oh yes, they did. But i already can weed out every score under 3 or 3.5. That much is sure already, just because this album fascinated me by being such a riddle. To be continued

I wish they would've done what Blood Incantation did with Timewave zero, and still have these massive thematic songs but broken down into multiple movements because as it stands it's just too dense. At least I can hope all the cover art will merge into a bigger picture

longing is still their best. Mirror who?!1 this feels like an A.I generated album!

I fell in love with Mirror reaper when it released, but I was floored on an entirely new way when I got it on vinyl because the whole "it being a 90min song" thing wasn´t really there considering there being side a,b,c,d. So I have a feeling it´s gonna be the same with these releases.

Mirror Reaper was not my thing and this certainly sounds like less of my thing. Just too much for me to tackle at this point in my music journey

mirror reaper is in my top three albums of all time, this didn't exactly live up to it however i definitely enjoyed and i expect it to grow on me with time, as all of their other albums have

Posted this on KZfaq elsewhere and on Facebook, so copying it from there: This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Mirror Reaper is one of my favourite funeral doom albums/songs of all time, but this didn't quite KO me on the first listen, something that MR did effortlessly. It was missing the memorable vocal hooks and the melodies weren't as infectious and haunting, and most importantly, the cathartic release that MR had in spades wasn't really there. It also takes forever to get started, and really should have been ATLEAST 30-35 minutes shorter (there's a 10+ minute section earlier on that could have been excised, as I don't think it added much), in my opinion (again, not a complaint I had before). Erik's absence was also greatly felt. I get that Stygian Bough is where him and the band will be collaborating now, but he's been a big part of their sound in the previous albums, and it's sorely missed here, especially when you're anticipating the song to swell and climax. Secondly, the mix wasn't as rapturous and hard-hitting. That said, there's still a lot of good here in places, especially the third act. It's just that I have to compare this to Mirror Reaper in the end, and that's where it comes up short. Hoping it's a different story on a second listen, but this is where I'm at right now. Still waiting for the 2nd and 3rd parts to this though!

Decent funeraldoom. Hope next parts are better tho

I was really underwhelmed by this. MR was great but this makes it feels less special (to me); many times where the music is the same tempo and key as MR. I love funeral doom but this felt repetitive in a bad way.

Dear god I hope they don’t do it live or something

Funeral Doom is so long & boring. Pass for me.

The entire album is like an intro to a song that never begins. Seeing this live you'd think they were doing a soundcheck that lasts an hour and a half. Its like a void that sucks away your patience and energy. This band shows that you can literally do anything in music no matter how lazy, and somebody somewhere will still like it.

yeaaaah. i'll be honest, i just do not like this at all, it is WAY, WAY TOO LONG, like, to the point where its the same melody repeated for 10 minutes and its just a snore fest to me so yeah. in a nutshell, its not good, 1.5/5