Review: In Mourning – The Immortal

Style: Melodic death metal, progressive metal, gothic metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Insomnium, Be’lakor, Opeth, (modern) Dark Tranquillity, Shylmagoghnar
Country: Sweden
Release date: 29 August 2025

Melodic death metal is like watching a Marvel film to me: a usually solid experience with some moments of action, some nice special effects, a strong sense of polish, and high production values. Unfortunately, I’m often unable to conjure any strong feelings at the end of the experience aside from a sort of positive ambivalence. Through a culmination of heaviness, gothic melancholy, and a progressive touch, Swedish melodeath outfit In Mourning have managed to avoid many of the genre’s follies and became a distinctive force in the scene¹. On their latest record, The Immortal, do they continue to cheat the (melo)death of sterility or do they finally succumb to the melodeath curse itself?

If nothing else, what The Immortal makes abundantly clear is that In Mourning are an exceedingly competent band: the record sounds phenomenally crisp with a balanced mix for the instruments and vocals, clean guitar tones, punchy drums, and the bass forming a solid cushion underneath; the mastering also sounds modern without overdoing the compression or loudness in any way. Each song has an effective narrative arc with clean transitions between sections and snappy hooks. The riffs are generally on the chuggier end, emphasizing groove with a mild prog twist, but the band also loves their melodic tremolos and big open chord choruses. In Mourning make good use of a triple guitar attack, letting one guitarist do rhythm while the other two do melody and harmony, and they also unleash a flurry of impeccable guitar solos throughout. Melodically, the band loves their classic Gothenburg stylings, but I’d say the real distinguishing factor of this album for me comes from the other Goth(enburg) elements. In Mourning often utilizes that classic Opeth-ian mixed vocals approach, but with gothic metal lead guitars instead of 70s progressive folk to carry the emotional load of beautiful sadness, yearning, and heartbreak Opener “Silver Crescent” is especially effective at this, steadily ramping up the intensity halfway through before releasing everything in a drawn-out, heartwrenching guitar melody and poignant clean vocals, making for an immediate highlight. 

…yet I think we all know what direction this review is going. As competent as In Mourning are, a profound sense of sameness arises quickly on The Immortal. “Song of the Cranes”, for example, has a generally soaring approach, but its opening chugging riff is very similar to the one that opened its predecessor “Silver Crescent”, and though the clean section at the end is structured differently, we’re already retreading waters in terms of structure. In general, songwriting elements get reused a lot on The Immortal. In Mourning really like their chug stick and pen some great groove-oriented riffs, but struggle to give them a different feel. Their black metal-inspired sections with the melodic tremolos however are generally on the generic side, and homogenize even more. This particularly hurts the atmo-black forays of closing epic “The Hounding” which are barely distinguishable from the tremolos in “As Long as the Twilight Stays” despite slight stylistic differences. Finally, clean vocal melodies also blend into one another, going from one drawn out, heartfelt melody line to another; the similarity between “Song of the Cranes” and “North Star” being especially jarring. The major exceptions to the homogeneity are “As Long as the Twilight Stays” with its elongated build-up, and “Staghorn” with its thrashy undercurrent and intensity. Furthermore, the guitar solos are almost always a highlight, both because of their execution and because of the cool rhythmic interplay underneath. 

I won’t say that In Mourning are like simply any other melodeath band that fails to invigorate me—The Immortal moved me too much for that, and their sound is too distinctive. What I will say however, is that The Immortal suffers from a homogeneity problem and an almost clinical professionalism similar to how I feel about the genre at large. Each song is excellent individually, but the constant recycling of ideas makes the record end up less than the sum of its parts. In the end, The Immortal showcases In Mourning’s craft while reminding me why melodeath remains a genre I respect more than I love.

Recommended tracks: Silver Crescent, Song of the Cranes, Staghorn
You may also like: Eternal Storm, Amiensus
Final verdict: 6.5/10

1.  Also, GOOD LORD, is their album art consistently amazing! ↩︎

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Supreme Chaos Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

In Mourning is:
– Tobias Netzell (vocals, guitars)
– Björn Pettersson (guitars, vocals)
– Tim Nedergård (guitars)
– Cornelius Althammer (drums)