Moonless
Calling All Demons

There will perhaps always be groups that attempt to emulate the great "masters", those entities that have in some way contributed to codifying a certain way of approaching and making music. In their own small way, the Californians Kyuss have significantly inflated that branch of rock, or perhaps it's more accurate to say metal, which has been defined as stoner. A genre that in reality arises from the fumes of vintage doom and, to be very simplistic, has its putative fathers in bands such as Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Witchfinder General, and Grand Funk Railroad. Over the years, other influences and additional subgenres have emerged, resulting in a massive proliferation of stoner rock/metal bands.

The Moonless are part of this vast melting pot, and despite the sandy sound of stoner, they hail from icy Denmark. It's not surprising if you consider other realities of this kind, like Stoned Jesus (Ukraine) or Brain Police (Iceland). A clear demonstration of how a certain musical genre transcends even its "niche" boundaries to become something of broader reach. But beyond the development and growth achieved by stoner, inevitably there is a reckoning with Kyuss, especially concerning "emerging bands." Often, these pay a toll in originality to all those who, in some way, have written the previous pages. It's somewhat what happened to the Moonless quartet, who play a canonical stoner devoid of special insights. Abrasive guitar, prominent bass, rough voice (but not too much) and durations around 6 minutes: the overall mood is that of robust American stoner, featuring pieces like "Mark Of The Dead", "Horn Of The Ram", and "The Bastard In Me", where a decisive, sharp rhythm reminiscent of old-school headbanging is striking.

The underlying problem with a work like "Calling All Demons" (March 2012) is that it is a well-made derivative, but always "derivative" of those already mentioned bands. Originality plays a fundamental role in productions of this kind, and the Danish Moonless have shown that they do not possess it with this first release. The task of the band to find a quid pluris capable of making the offer attractive and independent from the "big names" of the past appears daunting. A task that aligns them with a larger group of stoner-dedicated entities.

Essentially a work for lovers of the genre.

1. "Mark Of The Dead" (7:43)
2. "Devil's Tool" (5:26)
3. "Horn Of The Ram" (6:27)
4. "Calling All Demons" (6:52)
5. "The Bastard In Me" (7:03)
6. "Midnight Skies" (5:35)