Moloken : "All is Left to See"

It's amazing how vocals can set the tone. In the opening moment's by this Swedish band, I though these guys might be a slightly heavier version of Cult of Luna, but with the scathing screams come in its evident they are not dipping into prog- powered ballads any time soon.The guitars are dark and melodic. The more choked vocal approach to the title track is not as effective as how they lash out when the album opens. This song however does swell into a more raging monster before ebbing back down like a Neurosis song. The third song is actually more of an interlude leading into "Burst" the songs continue to run together, you really have to watch the playlist or you loose track of where you are on this one. They tread similar atmospheric ground as bands like Alaskan, coming a a graceful balance of harshly grinding sludge and ambiance."Burst" is under two minutes , so it seems more like break down than a song on its own two feet.

 So "Seventh Circle" is really the next fully realized song, and when they give themselves the room to lay it all out so that every dimension of what they do can be explored this band can't be stopped. Once I got past the first two songs the rest of the album took a few listens.On " Seventh Circle" the bass player and drummer cut loose without leaving the angular groove they are weaving.The vocals at this point change from the bands strength, to just typical post- hardcore screaming. There is yet another interlude following this song which leads into the more lumbering " I Dig Deeper" the riff hits like "Bleach" era Nirvana if they had been more adventurous. The bass line hammers its slinking yet muscular groove around the jabs of the chords, making something equal part ugly and beautiful. Beautiful is the path they stay on for the final song 'Beginning of the End". Strings come into to join the guitar, this is more of an outro and less like a song that you would expect from these guys. Not to say they should not be as dynamic as possible, but this is really and ep if you took at the interludes and instrumentals off the album.

 What I want from this band is what they do best. This feels like a tease when they clutter things up with interludes which might have some cool sounds, but don't tell the full story. I'll give this one an 8. The songs that are on here rock with enough cerebral integrity to make this interesting. If you like atmospheric post-hardcore then this might be  your next favorite band. The album comes out November 13th.