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Mirror Reaper
by
Mirror Reaper Image
Metascore
85

Universal acclaim - based on 6 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

  • Summary: The third full-length release for the Seattle doom metal duo of Dylan Desmond (bass, vocals) and Jesse Shreibman is a single 83-minute track that features guest vocals of Erik Moggridge.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. The A.V. Club
    Oct 23, 2017
    91
    Attention spans will certainly be tested, but surrender to the despair and Bell Witch’s slow-motion eulogy--delivered through a lonely ring of guitar, gently crashing cymbals, and stray funeral-home organ--hits like a blast beat to the heart.
  2. PopMatters
    Oct 23, 2017
    80
    Mirror Reaper isn’t so sanguine, but its visions of time fleeting and freezing brace us for the reality of the state from which no traveler returns.
  3. Exclaim
    Oct 23, 2017
    80
    Mirror Reaper is certainly an outstanding accomplishment in the Bell Witch catalogue. It may be their most emotionally stirring and musically ambitious record to date.
  4. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Oct 24, 2017
    80
    The music maintains its drive as it moves, risking the occasional drag in the more languid sections, but never succumbing to a total loss of momentum.
  5. Pitchfork
    Oct 30, 2017
    80
    Mirror Reaper simulates that totality of grief, but it also transcends its own function as a eulogy.
  6. Sputnikmusic
    Oct 23, 2017
    58
    Mirror Reaper is a challenging album to listen to on multiple fronts. On the one hand, it is oppressive and deep music, wrought with heavy themes and even heavier aesthetics. On the other hand, it challenges the listener's patience with overcooked ideas that threaten to spoil what is otherwise an immaculately produced record.

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. 0Villain
    Jun 22, 2019
    10
    I'm 2 years late to the review party, yet here I am anyways. Why am I doing this? Why write a review for a record that is 2 years old? Its notI'm 2 years late to the review party, yet here I am anyways. Why am I doing this? Why write a review for a record that is 2 years old? Its not because I just got around to listening to it. No, I heard it when it first came out. It's not because I just happen to feel like writing a review and picked a song I like. It's because, after reading a lot of the reviews for this song, I need to do it justice. This is far above a 7 or an 8, this is a masterpiece of not just doom, but of all music.

    This song single handedly gave me the greatest experience with music of my life. I was a camp counselor, and each night one of the four counselor's has to stay in the cabins and monitor until the kids are asleep, or they're relieved from their duties. I was there in the winter, and the night was cold and the room dark. The kids were asleep, and I had about 2 hours until Id be relieved. So, to kill that time, I put on mirror reaper and listened, in the black with nothing to do but listen.

    Never in my life have I felt so many emotions from a single song. I felt sadness, of course, but I reflected on my own life and all the sorrows I've had. I stared at the album art, and by God does it match the music perfectly. I felt the beauty and pain of every damn note, and I loved every second of it.

    Even now, as I listen to it without the environmental conditions, it breaks my heart and builds it back up again every damn time. This is one of the most emotionally satisfying albums I have ever, and possibly will ever listen to, and my only regret is that I know a lot of people will be frightened away by its length.

    Make yourself the time. I wasn't even that into funeral doom when I heard this, and still I only really love few funeral doom bands. But Bell Witch is on another level, and I promise you, if you have an open mind and a lot of time and patience, this may be one of the greatest songs you will ever hear.

    10 outta **** 10    … Expand
  2. garbagewizard
    Oct 26, 2017
    10
    A beautiful work of art, deep and dark. Desmond did a wonderful job of capturing what he must have been feeling after the death of his formerA beautiful work of art, deep and dark. Desmond did a wonderful job of capturing what he must have been feeling after the death of his former drummer, Adrian.… Collapse

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