Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

With their much-anticipated Serpent Lip Service album now mere days away from its April 17 release date, MOURNING NOISE release one last teaser for the full set, a new single “Melted Minds” and an accompanying lyric video.

“‘Melted Minds’ is a lens into an altered reality,” says the band’s Robby Bloodshed.  “A synopsis of how your brain, heart, and soul can play tricks on you. How it could make you believe something is so real, when it is so clearly an illusion in front of your own eyes. 

“This song is a real life encounter, and it’s so easy to borrow this passage from the late mastermind Rod Serling. Adjusted a little bit for our context… 

“‘A latter-day trance just returned from an adventure. Submitted to you without any recommendation as to belief or disbelief. You can accept or reject; you pays your money and you takes your choice. But credulous or incredulous, don’t bother to ask anyone for proof that it could happen. The obligation is a reverse challenge: prove that it couldn’t. This happens to be…’ In your MELTED MIND!” 

SINGLE: https://orcd.co/mourningnoise_meltedminds

Yet the release, while triumphant, is also tinged with heartbreak.  Just two weeks ago, founding member Chris “Morance” Marino passed away and, for a short while, the entire future of Mourning Noise was up in the air.  

“Chris was the best bandmate you could have asked for,” the band said in a statement that day. “A fantastic bassist. A team player. Eager to always rehearse. Our secret ingredient in the songwriting process who would give us little details to paint within the canvas. And above all, a man with a heart of gold. There are no words that can fully capture what he meant to us, and there never will be.”

Ultimately, however, the band decided to press on. Serpent Lip Service, all agree, is the band’s best album yet, and Chris’s playing throughout is phenomenal.  What better way to keep his memory alive by continuing to do what he – and they – loved best?

It’s not going to be easy. How can you simply replace someone who was an integral member of the band for 45 years, since Mourning Noise first came screaming out of suburban Lodi, New Jersey?  Serpent Lip Service, says Steve, “is rooted firmly in the band’s original punk ethos, the record pushes beyond tradition, blending dark intensity with a broad spectrum of influences to create a gripping, unpredictable journey from start to finish.”

Yes, that journey has suddenly taken a tragic, and wholly unexpected twist.  But Mourning Noise will continue, and Serpent Lip Service is suddenly an even more significant album than any of us could ever have imagined.

Rest in Peace, Chris.  You will never be forgotten… Mourning Noise will make certain of that.

CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=mourning+noise+serpent+lip+service
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/mourningnoise_serpentlipservice