Moloken
All is Left to See

Moloken from the north of Sweden, Umeå, are back with a new album. It is their third album and it follows four years after Rural, an album that I thought was pretty good. They describe taking on an album from Moloken like taking a dive head first into something unknown, you will never know what to expect. I suppose that is true but that might in part be down to the band having so few bands behind them, I suppose the same could have been said about the third album by Iron Maiden, look what happened then – if Moloken find a niche that fits them they might be stuck as well.

The music of Moloken is heavy, dark, doomy, progressive, a sense of Opeth of the past during a very deep depression. Heavy riffs, evil, almost desperate feeling growly vocals, it is all invigoratingly dark on this album. It seems as though these northerners have created this album in the winter when the sun don’t rise above the horizon. It is good variation provided that you take that head first dive into the album and find the dynamics that hides beneath a seemingly monotone surface that the selfie generation probably hear when they try listening to this album as it gives no fast gratification or anything like that, it is an album you need to listen to. Excellent production and they have been wise to implement a “less is more” approach to the content of the album, something that more often than not is the wisest choice when deciding what to put on an album.

Great album, if you ask me I will probably respond that this is the best work of Moloken to date. The songs are dynamic and dark, I really like the emotions of this album all the way from the first to the last sound of it. The vocal performance is razor sharp, excellent combined with the music. The fact is that it is very difficult to find anything that is very negative about this album; it is simply great whichever way you look at it. Maybe a little quiet to reach the two highest ratings in our scale but still are great and entertaining album to listen to. I think that the band have found the correct approach for this album, now all we can do is hope that they will change this approach to another correct approach for the next album so that they don’t go down the Iron Maiden route when we look at what they do a few albums from now. I should add a small note of caution though, this album is probably not for those of you who enjoy melodic metal/hardrock as you are not the target audience for this album.

Highly recommended to those of you who like Moloken already, and for fans of darker progressive metal – it is a great album with a lovely sense of darkness and even though it lacks some distinct hit songs I will still mention the first track as that makes a big impression. I do think all the tracks are really strong and besides the first track none really stand out in any direction. Moloken definitely deliver an album that spreads happiness, I think they should be happy with it and smile.

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