Release
date: November 27 2015. Label: Kozmik
Artifactz/Bilocation
Records. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Spirit
Remains – Tracklisting
1.
Beneath The Waves 7:03
2.
Electric Veins 10:55
3.
Lord Of Memories 11:27
4.
Vicious Sky 5:04
5.
Witches Handbook 7:57
Band
Members:
Matt
Leece - guitar & vocals
Rochelle Nason - bass
Keith Stendler – drums
Rochelle Nason - bass
Keith Stendler – drums
Review:
The
ability to tickle nucleus accumbens in the brain and create vivid
imagery flashing around in the mind is music’s finest modus
operandi. Occasionally you come across an album that holds promise of
both dark and light, beauty and ugly, that contains such vibrant
soundscapes unfolding at your feet, as the ear is occupied
transmitting, the mind is busy covering vast landscapes of
snow-capped forests, deep fjords, barren sun-scorched grasslands,
dark dungeons and green meadows. This is such travelogues of the mind
that Moon Curse newest opus Spirit Remains’ omits upon hitting
play.
The
doom-trio from Milwaukee with their sophomore release has outdone
their fine self-titled debut from 2012 on so many levels. The
production is better, brighter more defined, the riffs are bigger,
the atmospheres are deeper, the rhythm section tighter and the vocals
even better. The six songs on this stoner-doom-rock behemoth blends
together in epic manner all the best these genres have to offer, from
classic riff-virtues of the early 70s heavy rock to the tar-dipped
slow metallic grooves of later-days doom giants spiced up with
stretches of higher tempo flat-out doomy stoner rock. Despite the
lengthiness of most of the songs on the album, they never feel
drawn-out nor being long just for the sake of length – there is
never a dull moment and in the company of the cursed lunarians 11+
minutes passes by with the blink of an eye.
Moon
Curse starts the ballet on a quite note with a short mellow intro
before the court is in session and melodic guitar lines, monolithic
drumming and slow low-end bass rumblings take over the agenda. On the
album opener, the listener will soon find oneself beneath heavy waves
of slow crushing stoner doom, carrying you from one big splash to
another. Lifting you high atop the wave’s crest of shimmering white
light guitar flares just to plunge you deep down the dark water’s
caverns buried below layers of layers of dark distorted basses and
finally washed ashore beaten bruised by the shear heaviness at sea,
yet still feeling light, cleansed and craving for another sweep of
the lunar tides. In some strange way I am reminded of Mastodon’s
epic Leviathan album with regard to scope and magnificent
glorifications of the sea mostly due to the eerie atmosphere and feel
of the song rather than composition or pace as Moon Curse plays ball
in a total different court than Mastodon. An all-out grandiose track
and they are barely getting started.
Beneath
The Waves blends perfectly over into the next musical journey that
picks up the stranded seaman and gently leads him up the beach of
some distant eastern country to the sweet tones of oriental sounds of
strings and flutes. Slowly leading our traveller to follow the
electric veins. This track is a slow-burner of snail-paced twisting
and turning riffs intertwined with eastern sounding noises, giving
this track a warmth and the feeling of melting in the rays of a mad
moon. This underpinned by the distorted vocals and frantic mood of
the singing that really suites the overall feel. There is really
nothing to remark on the musicianship, everything is performed
dead-on and with an impeccable sense for co-work and interplay, and
it becomes quite evident how much effort, blood and sweat that has
been put into the making of this album.
Third
track continues the good virtues from the two preceding songs but
also utilizes of a persistent Uncle Acid like groove and melodic
swagger that bobs and bounces with easy and excellence making it
impossible not to nod along as the ‘Lord Of Memories’ takes you
further and further into a bewildered acidic dreamlike state of doom
rock excess. Despite a runtime far beyond the 10-minute mark at no
time this songs seams either pointless nor boring, in fact this
listener is on the edge of the seat with anticipation for what lurks
around each next corner of these dark meandering musical
embroideries. The songs is slowly brought to a hold with 2 minutes of
acoustic ice cold beauty where Matt Leece gently chants: “Somewhere
there’s behind the quite lines, the one with troubled minds, don’t
turn your back, waisted we are what’s left tonight, twist your
rusty knifes into his back, too late to say you and me are true,
spirit remains, spirit remains, spirit remains…” Lucid visions of
a fog-clouded bog immediately emerges on the retina and you can
almost feel the blade between your spines as the sounds from the
final stoke of the strings die out.
Slowly
fading-in from the previous track ‘Vicious Sky’ kicks off from
0-100 m/hour in seconds and turns everything over with killer
chugging riffs, subersized distorted bass-lines and crashing drums.
This song sees Moon Curse in familiar territories bringing back all
the elements I loved from their self-titled debut, but adding an even
more lethal EW-vibe further materialized in Matt’s eminent voice
that perfectly matches the heavy madness going on in this track. What
strikes me on this album is how well he is capably to change the tone
and phrasing throughout the different songs to match the various
expressions going from softly chant-like singing to full-fletch
dungeon deep wailing (always straying from simply screaming/roaring).
Thus he and the rest of the band continuously trickles your ear
canals as you stare at the evil moon hanging low on the vicious night
sky.
Last
serving cooked up by the bewitched mooners is ‘Witches Handbook’,
and indeed this is the ABC on how to construct and execute a
slow-burning doom rock monster brew. This is the near perfect
re-interpretation of the iconic ‘Black Sabbath’ song by said
band, but importantly without being plagiarism. This is stand-out
brilliant. Well-done Moon Curse, bloody perfect. Especially the
guitar tone is so damn thick, sick and intoxicating, you can almost
feel the strings vibrate from each stroke on the axe. The song ends
on a high-note where everything is driven to an end in a fast pace
followed by soaring guitar leads and the crashing of drums. Upon yet
another finished listen, feeling replenished and ready to go over the
moon again. I urge you to check out this awesome album ASAP and
preferable to also pick up the vinyl from German label Kozmik
Artifactz/Bilocation Records.
Words
by Niels Fuzz Bartholdy
Thanks
to Kozmik Artifactz/Bilocation Records for the promo. Spirit Remains is available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl now.
