June Frost

Reissue. With their third full-length, 2009's the June Frost, Mournful Congregation finally secured a proper North American release on the small Enucleation Records label. And though this helped to increase the band's status in the States, the label unfortunately ceased to operate not long after the album came out and Mournful Congregation were once again without support. Thankfully, the quality of material on the June Frost achieved the first real accolades for the band from the wider metal press. Consisting of four primary extended songs and four shorter instrumental passages in between, it echoes elements of the earliest Anathema recordings in terms of both heaviness and heartbreak. Plenty of acoustic passages, drawn-out single notes and creative arranging make Mournful's refined, classical sound the epitome of the genre.