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WEEPING SORES “The Convalescence Agonies”
WEEPING SORES “The Convalescence Agonies”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Severe disability is one of the worst things you can go through, especially if it is permanent. The person you used to be is gone, replaced by something different and likely not as good. It’s a tough situation to adapt to...I have personal experience with this.
So does Doug Moore, the mind behind WEEPING SORES. Moore plays with numerous projects, but most notably PYRRHON. In 2018, he suffered a massive injury to his shoulder which left him unable to play guitar. He gradually regained enough function to play, but to this day, the shoulder is not fully healed and leaves him in pain. Dealing with this disability forced him to reset his entire life and the result is “The Convalescence Agonies”, a doom-death album that tells the story of adjustment to a new way of life.
I am really surprised by this album, especially since I’m not a fan of PYRRHON. There’s very little trace of that band in WEEPING SORES. This is a tight, coherent doom/death album with plenty of structure and heaviness and just enough curveballs to keep it interesting. As you might expect, the songs are long and lumbering, but put together in such a way that interest is not lost. I’m reminded of NOVEMBER’S DOOM at some points, in both the crushing doom parts and the more mournful melodic digressions which are kept to a reasonable amount. Even the 14 minute behemoth of the title track is not too bad in this regard...bulldozing death/doom chords for the first 7 minutes, a sad melodic interlude like a cross between MY DYING BRIDE and CULT OF LUNA, and a return to surging doom before the final minute ends with cello. There’s also some bursts of death metal aggression at a pretty brisk clip in some songs.
Overall, you can feel Moore’s struggle in the actual music and his powerful vocals, which cover guttural, harsh and sorrowful cleans. Tracks like “Pleading For The Scythe” and even the short “Empty Vessel Hymn” are extremely well laid out. There’s very little of the dissonance of PYRRHON, which I can happily accept. This emerges as a very personal and successful album that I hope gave Doug some real catharsis.
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