Returning with the second and final installment in the doom-laden The Exuviae Of Gods EP series, Part II once again contains two never-heard brand new Mournful Congregation tracks and a re-recording of an old classic from the band’s 1990s demo era.

The EP opens with Heads Bowed which the most fanatical Mournful Congregation fans will recognize from their An Epic Dream Of Desire demo from 1995, now given new life through the eyes and ears of decades of extreme doom songcraft and studio work. After that look back, The Forbidden Abysm and the side-long The Paling Crest remind us how far the band has come, and yet remain as true to their original purpose as ever.

The drums were recorded by Evan Mersky at Red Lantern Studios in Portland, Oregon, with the rest of the album recorded and mixed at the Cave Studio in Adelaide, Australia by Damon Good, after which the record was mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Obituary, Sleep, Come To Grief). Like the previous EP, artwork is once again handled by Karmazid (Daeva, Lamp Of Murmuur, Egregore), bringing the monadic into the dyadic, thus perfecting the natural order of primordial principles. Required listening for followers of the works of Atramentus, Dream Unending, Worm, Skepticism, Bell Witch, Evoken, Ahab, Thergothon, and Esoteric.

And so concludes the dual-pillar compendium of devouring gloom and exaltation that is The Exuviae Of Gods. A balm to quiet the restless spirit as the world awaits the inevitable birth of the years-in-the-making sixth Mournful Congregation album.