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Rating: The group's latest effort, dated 2004, will finally (and deservedly, I would say) find its place on store shelves. Indeed, as a testament to their talent, as well as their (or his, I should say) tenacity, they have managed to secure a contract with DeadSun Records, which will press and distribute this album.
Ten years have passed since their beginnings, and today, after changes, line-up swaps, 2 demos, and a CD halfway between a promo and a full-fledged album, MOALS still manage to move us and achieve more as musicians with what is officially their debut album. These seven steps into nothingness take us as always to other worlds in the spirit of the mystical and the dark, passing through the melodic, skillfully blending together black, death, progressive, and neoclassical, never giving too much weight to any one of them, and always remaining tightly on a personal and balanced line, which gives the right value to each song.
Technically speaking, regarding the concept behind it, we are facing an intertwining of anguish, sadness, and pain that intersect with each other, "desperate music" as Buzz himself likes to call it, which gives life to dark visions landing inexorably in one unique territory: that of uncertainty and the presence of nothingness as a coadjutor of everything. The line-up change is surprising, with only the original singer/guitarist Buzz remaining. Everything else has changed, and the difference is noticeable: significant contributions have been made by the keyboards to the melodies of the songs, and the drumming is exquisite (the instrument that has left me most satisfied, although I already greatly appreciated the previous drummer), displaying a more progressive character compared to the past, while at times the absence of another guitar is felt.
The sounds are a bit less dark than in the past, and the death vein is a bit less pronounced, giving more space to the melodic/symphonic and to arrangements that are less raw, but atmospherically richer, thanks precisely to the keyboards.
What amazes those who know them is their perseverance over time, which has given no respite, always delivering excellent works, although with always notable style differences as evidence of their maturation. And though their success has always remained limited to a restricted underground circle and specialized press, this album represents not only an excellent springboard towards broader horizons but also a point of arrival and stabilization of the type of music Buzz wants to produce. The times of the spartan "Son Of My Satanic Creation" (don't be put off by the title) dated 1997, which offered a much more direct and dry death style (albeit of Swedish imprint) are far away, and today the matured experience is immediately perceived in every single song, in every single step into nothingness. Well-recorded and well-produced, I am really curious to see how the version distributed by DeadSun will be.
Unlike some of their other works, I can afford to recommend it even to those approaching this genre for the first time, to those who do not seek wildness at all costs and blind moshing, but refinement and sophistication, good music, and skilled musicians.
Tracklist
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