Moon — The Nine Gates
I was very much taken by this projects debut 2011’s Caduceus Chalice (also on Moribund Records), and it’s blurred & musty mix of sinister gitars, swirled blacked keyboard ambience, and processed growls/ choral drifts. The projects sound was both haunting, chilling & fairly original sounding. So what’s this new release like then, and does it live up to Caduceus Chalice?
Well on offer here are eight tracks, and just under forty five minutes of play-time. Each of the eight track last between just over the two minute mark, to just shy of the ten minute mark. Once again most of the tracks follow a low-to-mid sort of pace, with only one track really picking up the pace. And once again the sound here is very blurred & hazed, with cold sheets of chiming & tolling guitar meeting processed swirls of blacked growls. The thing that sounds slightly different here is the keyboard elements which seems slightly more grand & darkly sophisticated - often taking on either a musty & blurred string like swoon, rising choir like swirl, or doomed yet powerful church organ like simmers. At times some of the tracks even have a slowed & slurred sort of almost epic film soundtrack vibe, take track number two “Inhale Darkness”(what a great track title!) which sounds like a slowed ‘n’ slurred grim downed version of a moody spy movie theme, with of course swirls of processed growls & slowed brooded banks of cold yet reverb licked guitars added in.
I’m not sure if this album hit me in quite the same way Caduceus Chalice did , but on the whole it’s a consistent enough follow-up that finds the project staying mostly with their fairly distinctive chilling & blurred sound, but adding a few new elements here & there to keep things moving on & darkly fresh.