Kayo Dot’s last album “Blasphemy” (2019) had me hanging onto every note. The discovery of this band was amazing. When you think that musicians have drained the creative pool like draining all the fish from the sea and there is none left, along came Kayo Dot and did their thing. Dreamy, dark, hypnotising, psychologically absorbing, exciting and a feast of musicianship, that album still haunts me in the way that a great album should. I’m not sure a description of the style could do it justice, but that one was some sort of avant-garde technical progressive darkwave rock-metal. This is the band’s tenth album and they have a reputation for mixing it up, so I approached “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshare Alike” with great anticipation.

“Blasphemy” isn’t a happy album, but “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshare Alike” is darker still, appropriately so as the theme here is the frailty of the human condition. Deep tones and harsh vocals greet us on “The Knight Errant”. Musically it is harsh and weighty, with electro undertones. The atmosphere is threatening with tinges of melancholy. “Brethren of the Cross” continues in the dark vein. The singer sounds distant and vulnerable. Screams and growls intervene. The song plods on slowly and inexorably in its downtrodden way like a TV drama about a murder, only building up a head of steam towards the end. The album got going for me with the epically melancholic “Void in Virgo”. At times symphonic and electronic, the piece has subtle rock musicianship, but space for us to reflect and absorb its power. “Spectrum of One Colour” sounded it was a piece from a metal opera. Utterly dark and pessimistic in its tone, its harsh tones combined with a deep electronic touch. The bassy technical start to “Get Out of The Tower” evolves into deliberate dissonant chaos, matched by an overtly suffering vocalist. The guitar and bass sound is hypnotising, and adds colour and interest to the tortured scene. Tension is always at the heart of this album, none more so than on the electro-symphonic “The Necklace”. The vocalist is in agony. Dark electronic tones drift. The drum patterns are complex. It’s like a mish-mash of mental torture. As if the skies have suddenly cleared and the world is momentarily a better place, the music becomes more expansive. The vocalist screams in the background, so maybe the new found warmth is an illusion. As if to tell us that nothing is constant, “Epipsychidion” plunges us into raucous electro-death metal. Nasty voices echo menacingly as the highly charged music preaches chaos and storms. Kayo Dot are extreme in their thinking. This is extreme on a musical level. Everything about “Epipsychidion” suggests mental breakdown and agony. But Kayo Dot skilfully transform the mood into one of mystical reflection, reminding me of At The Soundawn who are equally adept at transforming atmospheres and creating magical worlds. Here sound waves oscillate, crash and overlap in this electric field of tension. What a fantastic ending to another intriguing album.

Kayo Dot describe themselves as an “undefinable band since 2003”. That is right. They don’t do boundaries. Personally, I preferred the lighter touch of “Blasphemy”, but once again this enigmatic band has released an interesting and highly creative album in “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshare Alike” and one which reflects its themes.

(8/10 Andrew Doherty)

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https://kayodot.bandcamp.com/album/moss-grew-on-the-swords-and-plowshares-alike