Black Metal History Month -Moonfall : "Odes to the Ritual Hills"

Seems like when it comes to new black metal, a great deal of EPs are being released, I am not sure if the global economy or the music biz almost dying during Covid factors into a niche like this, but here we are This duo from Finland is comprised of members of Beherit and Ceremonial Torture. They have a lo-fi raw black metal sound that is not trying to just attack you with blast beats, as they seek to bridge sounds from the genre called Dungeon Synth into their take on early black metal. To their credit a growling thump of bass drives the backbone of the first song, which is not something you typically hear in black metal, in fact, the synths are pretty dominant in the mix and the typical static buzz of tremolo-picked guitar is not found in the mix. The drums are felt more than heard here. The only drawback I hear that I am allowing them to change in the songs after this are the vocals which sound like he is violently clearing his throat the entire song.

Things get weirder on the title track which has more atmosphere thanks to the synths playing a larger role in their center stage mix, as the distorted bass seems to wander a bit looking for where the drums went, which accent it more than giving marching orders. For the course of this nine-and-a-half-minute song, they never seem to find the drums. I often feel like black metal bands are less likely to smoke pot than some other genres of metal, but this song puts that theory to the test. The keyboards wander off like they decided to go score an 80s fantasy movie.  

At over five minutes I can't write the last track off as just an outro. It's a synth ambiance that does not really go anywhere and is time that would have been better spent writing another song. As it was the previous song was already testing my limits when it comes to synth dominance. That said I will give this album a 7, I think there are some good ideas and interesting sounds that offer a fresh take on the genre, however, they lean too heavily on the synth sound and could stand to dial them back a bit.

pst -68

Iron BoneHead Productions · Moonfall - Countess Carody