ALBUM REVIEW: Dreaming In A Dead Language – Mo’ynoq
MO’YNOQ have, since their formation just a couple of years ago, gone from strength to strength in their short time together as a band. On the back on their debut demo, Anguish And Atonement, and 2017’s Bardo EP, the North Carolina outfit have developed a solid reputation off the back of the blend of tight, visceral black metal and glorious, epic shoe-gaze elements, to create a powerful and catchy form of atmospheric black metal. Their first full length record, Dreaming In A Dead Language, is the creative zenith of MO’YNOQ to this point, and stands as what could be a genuine break out album.
Empyreal Decay starts this album off with a wave of fierce and intense guitar work, thunderous drums and shrill, caustic vocal passages, which grabs the listeners attention right out of the gate. There’s an airy, atmospheric quality to the music giving it a shoe-gaze like sound in amongst the rabid and vicious black metal that makes up the bulk of the sound. This is an incredibly speed driven throughout, with very few slower sections thrown into the mix at all. It’s an excellent start to this record, and sets the bar exceedingly high right off the bat.
The Collector is a far more aggressive song, with a robust, sludgy sound that sounds enormous and oppressive, with some especially brilliant vocals, ranging from deranged howls to dense and dark gutturals, which contrasts really well with the frenetic, jarring approach of the guitars. This is a song that definitely ups the ante when it comes to the power and ferocity of the music, and at points it is truly visceral and cacophonous, with the last moments of the track becoming utterly chaotic. These Once Tranquil Grounds continues in the same vein as the song that came before it, with some intricate drumming and far more technical guitar hooks, which do an amazing job of injecting plenty of great licks and interesting moments into this song. The vocals, although still impressive and soaring, are a little more restrained, which allows the music to come to the fore and take centre stage at various points. It’s another great song that has a sound that is firmly rooted in black metal, which some progressive flourishes peppered throughout to help make this song stand out.
Doomed To Endure is a very short piece of piano music that does a fantastic job of breaking up the album and allowing the listener some rest from the fierce and feral side of MO’YNOQ‘s sound, if only for a couple of minutes. It serves its role well, and provides a great piece of instrumental music to set the listener up for the following song, Carve My Name. This fifth song is another shoe-gaze style offering, with some bombastic, epic moments. It’s a slow burning track, which gradually builds its sound, with the opening motif being a tight guitar line that eventually gives way to a more expansive and acerbic sound, without losing any of its grandiosity at any point. Again, there’s plenty of stunning, dissonant guitar parts and energetic drumming patterns that prove to be some of the best percussive performances on the whole album. As far as the vocals go, they are razor sharp, acidic shrieks that match the darkness and urgency of the music, full of lots of world class, impassioned deliveries, which serve to elevate this song from being just another brilliant slab of atmospheric black metal to one of the stand out tracks on this record.
The albums penultimate track, Witness To The Abyss may not be the best song on the album, but it is certainly the most intense and brutal. Coupling the bleak and aggressive approach of the final moments of the song that preceded it, it’s a truly chaotic and visceral display of tight, progressive musicianship and musical aggression. With the music taking a far more blackened death metal sound, it’s certainly hard not to love this track, with the tar thick bass lines, booming drums and fierce gutturals. It’s an amazing song that sets the listener up incredibly well for the albums seventh and final song. Much like Carve My Name, Buried By Regret is a much lengthier offering which is, unlike Carve My Name, is a far more intense and fierce track, and has no build up, launching headlong into a vicious motif straight away, with a wall of guitars, thunderous bass hooks and sharp, intricate drumming all adding to the aggression on offer. The vocals, likewise, are every bit as acerbic and caustic as the rest of the music, rarely straying away from the tortured, grating screams and thick gutturals throughout. It’s a staunchly bleak and violent sounding song, and helps to bring this album to a close on a great note.
Overall, this is an impressive and interesting record that does an excellent job of blending darker, black metal elements with much softer and far more atmospheric ones. It ebbs and flows between these two sides of MO’YNOQ‘s sound from the first note to the last, and there’s not a dull moment on here. This band clearly has all the tools and talent to make their mark on the worldwide black metal scene, and with an album of this calibre and style, there’s an incredibly good chance that MO’YNOQ will be able to transcend the underground with ease.
Rating: 8/10
Dreaming In A Dead Language is out now via self-release.
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