Moonreich are French and previous purveyors of a couple of EPs and a full length but have never crossed my path before I’m afraid, so I just dived in with no preconceptions, which is always nice. After the ten second sample, I get hit by a total barrage of raging drum and guitar from the title track which threatens a bestial assault but gradually coalesces into a very modern black metal sound. You know the one, it’s that polished but still brutal sound like Blut Aus Nord with the weirdness systematically hammered out of it and when you snap it in half it has Anaal Nathrakh running all the way through.
Did I tell you how much I worry these days when I see a black metal album title in Latin?
Second song, Bright Morning Star, continues the attack seamlessly; no clean vocals here, concentrating instead on the kind of classy rabid howl that both AN and Deathspell Omega utilise. The music does briefly find an almost melodic guitar line to lift it out of the relentless attack attack attack but for the most part it holds to that one sound: Chaotic vocals allied to music that sounds equally chaotic and feral at first but when you separate them you discover the music to be strictly controlled. Face ripping and skull crushing, yes, but not the maelstrom it appears to be at first sight.
By the point of fifth song The Serpent Presaging Sinister, I also finally realise the band have done these titles in English (quick on the uptake, me) when a quick perusal of their previous releases shows they predominantly stuck to their native language. No, not a musical point but curious nonetheless.
The production here is a little bit more muddy than I normally expect with this sound which is a pleasant surprise, really, and indeed it helps keep the grit in what would otherwise be a too slick polished and probably semi-industrial feel. But (here it comes) it all just steadfastly refuses to move me. Occasional seams of more mainstream metal rise sadly briefly here and there in seconds on songs like Cursed The Day, Hailed The Night, bringing flashes of deep colour to what becomes a singularly monotone soundscape if you let it. Mostly however, it is what it is: Similarly paced songs, tightly played and controlled, with a crushing sound and not a step out of place. When for a second or two everything but the bass drops away on Hidden Mystical World it jolts you back to attention but by the time you can will it on, the moment is gone. However in parts of this ten minute epic it does move the riff into deeper, bass lined territory which shows real promise and character, as does the briefly clean(er) vocals which are well placed along with a drop to death metal and a curiously heavy metal lead break. The riff about seven and a half minutes in is also fantastic, as is the odd bit off windswept choral/folk singing. This all works, and is far and away the finest track, but sadly for me the rest just rages in the corner as I stare. Even the mournful closing riff of And A Star Fell At The Fifth Sound can’t rescue it for me.
If you think Anaal Nathrakh’s Vanitas was extreme treading water then probably avoid this. If you didn’t then snap it up. Whatever, though, check out Hidden Mystical World for what might have been and what may yet come.
(5.5/10 Gizmo)
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