EP REVIEW: YOUR LIGHT FADES AWAY – Moodring

MOODRING left jaws very much on the floor with last year’s debut Stargazer, its frank examination of mental health, identity and more set to a heavily DEFTONES-indebted take on metalcore that started to carve out its own niche. Its follow-up EP YOUR LIGHT FADES AWAY is clearly just as much a passion project as ever and serves as a conclusion to the debut album and perhaps points at where the band could go in future. 

Though they’ve already released two songs as singles already meaning there’s only one unreleased song on here, they lose none of their power, the whole standing as greater than the sum of its parts. SHI=DEATH opens with synths before erupting into a fierce metalcore riff that twists and turns, before giving way to breakbeats and distorted melodic vocals. Despite how incongruous the elements are, the band’s singular creative vision holds them together. 

As the shortest song on the EP, BLACK_WAVE doesn’t mess about, a chugging riff backdropping moody vocals from the outset, its first breakdown hits in under a minute, and its second comes barely 30 seconds later after a chorus. An easy contender for the heaviest song here, it still makes sure to have the requisite cleanly sung chorus but the shifting drumming changes the pace and mood from urgency to more laconic. 

Finally, WOULDYOUWAITFORME? follows BLACK_WAVE’s closing breakdown with a churning riff and pulsing synths. The chorus drops the speed and ups the earworm hooks, the closest YOUR LIGHT FADES AWAY gets to anything like a slower tempo, as brief as it is. At just three songs, it’s a powerful, no filler statement of MOODRING’s ability to meld genre and shift gears and emotions on a dime, from fury to serenity to everything in between. A more than worthy follow-up to Stargazer and one that hopefully has new fans delving into the debut while whetting appetites for what might happen next. 

Rating: 8/10

YOUR LIGHT FADES AWAY is set for release on July 14th via UNFD.

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