#FOR FANS OF: Post Metal, Sludge |
We had left them just over a year ago, in the fall of 2010 with their brilliant first full length, "Our Astral Circle" and now finally the brothers Bäckström return, as always very well supported by Discouraged Records, with a new job. The sound does not blatantly changes compared to the previous album, and certainly is not bad if you were pleasantly impressed by that release. Their music, therefore, continues to travel in post-metal/sludge territories, however, in some darkest shades, less accessible, fuller of anger and certainly less full of easy melodies. "Rural" is an angry album. In its seven songs in its long fifty minutes, moods are alternating by winding between fury and irascible, occasionally leaving room for breakers in the limit of post-rock (the second half of "Ulv"). What amazes me most in the new work of Moloken, is a certain combination of the sounds that come from the strings of the guitar, sometimes really delusional or completely discordant (I am thinking of the psychotic ending of "Waltz of Despair" for example or the hypnotic beginning of the aforementioned "Ulv" pachydermic song - lasting 16 minutes - fierce yet obscure, that reminds of those wanderings of the school of Ved Buens Ende), which contribute confuse the listener a bit. The tribal and schizophrenic "Casus" serves as a bridge connection with «Blank Point " and I am gradually beginning to realize the good things contained in "Rural", a job to say the least controversial, certainly difficult to digest, but given its complexity, of important progress. The vocals of Niklas continue to be those in the limit of the caveman, so as it was outlined in the previous review, but it is of little importance because I measure the band in its ability to vary their own sound, and I guarantee to you that there is not one single minute of respite in which runs the risk of dozing off or lying down, although we have the impression that their sound can be trapped in doom like or even psychedelic sounds (and I think the suffocating and sick "Thin Line"); no fear though, because the quartet of Holmsund comes out even more fiercely and ready to crash your bones. I am shattered by their impetuousness, by their dark gray, almost the same while watching the sun setting fast on the horizon, leaving soon place for a dense fog which possesses you with the darkness of the night. Hostile, neurotic, glacial, fearful, are just some of the adjectives that come out of my mind after listening to this disfiguring "Rural", an album to have in your collection at any cost. Raving! (Francesco Scarci - Translation Sofia Lazani)