Moondark – The Abysmal Womb Review

Interestingly, the first thing I do when I receive an album to review it’s to give a good look at the name of the band and the album tittle. I always wonder how its sonancy might be. Most of the time I hit bull’s eye. It’s always possible to get information from them. The name Moondark sounds like a band that dives deeper into the dark with a doomy view. “The Abysmal Womb” gives the Death Metal part of the sound.  It’s exactly what it is. This album has both influences in the same proportion – let’s say it. It’s dark, it’s doomy, and it’s ferocious. “The Abysmal Womb” has the slow cadenced guitar riffs as Doom Metal plus the vicious Death Metal vocals in an amazing combination that makes the fan want to listen to it many times. It’s amazing the more I listen to Extreme Metal the more I find about its variety. Besides all the doomy parte Moondark added some Atmospheric Black Metal features to it as well making the album a kind of hodgepodge of all slow cadenced and atmospheric Metal subgenres.

“The Abysmal Womb” is opened up the best way possible with “Where Once Was Life” with that open big grow I say I love. There’s nothing better to kick a song up. “Where Once Was Life” is a kind of strange persona to the album as it is the fastest track of it with huge doses of Death Metal. By the way, what Moondark do here is a mix between the good old Death Metal with Doom Metal with a slight prone to this last. Most of the tracks are Doom Metal oriented having only the vocals as a remembrance of Death Metal. On the other hand, the mix works pretty fine. As a signature, the band has a relentless guitar phrasing that goes through all tracks. Following track “Suffer the Dark” starts the doomy part of the album with its relentless shoegazed cadence and the spirit of doom. The track showcases the Doom Metal persona from the band with the aggressive low vocals. Interestingly, instrumentals might sound simple at first, however this is only an impression. The band imposes to its music lots of changes and variations that enrich the music as in “Palliative Dusk.” Thanks to the Death Metal persona of the band. In fact, it’s possible to say Moondark play Doom Metal with Death Metal intent or the other way around. The guitar leads prove that as well. Also the changes in tempo the track has. “Palliative Dusk” is also the track where the band blends both features and influences stressing the cavernous vocals. Same goes to “Sterile Earth” proving the band liked its experiments.

“The Abysmal Womb” is a very interesting album considering the experiments Moondark do here. Of course, they aren’t the only band in this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet to blend both, but the way they do it is pretty intense. The way the band combines both elements do all the trick because they don’t mix them equally or put it within a formula. In fact, the formula changes throughout the album and that’s the thing that makes the album worth it.

Moondark “The Abysmal Womb” will be released on December 20th via Pulverised Records.

Track Listing:

  1. Where Once Was Life
  2. Suffer the Dark
  3. Palliative Dusk
  4. Sterile Earth
  5. Infernal Genocide
  6. Beyond Darkness
  7. The Abysmal Womb
  8. Immersed to Crypts

Watch “Sterile Earth” official lyric video here: