ALBUM REVIEW: IRON RAIN – Super Pink Moon
Formed as a side project in 2019 by Ihor Pryshliak (SOMALI YACHT CLUB), SUPER PINK MOON offer a mesmeric mix of post-rock, shoegaze and doom that enchants you with its ethereal charm. Written and recorded by Pryshliak, half the album was recorded before 24th February 2022, the date which has inflicted a wound on the Ukrainian people unlike any other as Russia launched its invasion of the country. Dealing with a plethora of complex emotions that come from war, SUPER PINK MOON elegantly articulate them with cavernous riffs and graceful, beautiful melodies accompanied by deep, emotional lyrics. The project’s latest effort IRON RAIN is a moving and heartfelt album that hits you profoundly in more ways than one.
By nature IRON RAIN is richly and complexly layered, as different emotions are explored from varying perspectives. Alongside the musical trickery and ever-shifting dynamics, each listen through of this album will affect you differently as you pick up on the more nuanced parts hidden beneath its multitude of multi-faceted layers. IRON RAIN’s lyrical themes revolve around Pryshliak’s self-reflections on the war, and the album explores the difficulty of dealing with moments of happiness and pride alongside sadness, pain and despair, coupled with the survivor’s guilt snapping at his heels. The vast majority of us will never be able to fully comprehend what it is like to live in a country at war, but we can relate to some degree the very human emotions of fear, pain, despair and deep, deep sadness.
Pryshliak’s day-to-day turmoil comes across in the sombre, sorrowful music. Yet there is a defiance and strongly held hope seated deep in this album’s core, which significantly adds to its emotional weight. For Pryshliak, the album has been a self-curing process; to us IRON RAIN gives us a first hand perspective of the events currently unfolding in the country, which is deeply moving and emotional for the listener.
The music itself is surprisingly dreamy, Pryshliak blends post-rock, shoegaze, doom and various parts of indie rock together effortlessly. Each song also feels like it has been built from the ground up, intentionally and meticulously detailed at each stage. With this in mind, IRON RAIN doesn’t reveal all that it has to offer straight away. The luscious layers peel themselves back gradually as they wash over you. As the gentle melodies transport you to a solemn dreamscape, your mind is left to wander; thoughts and feelings brush past you like clouds as you pensively reflect at every stage of this musical journey. With the journey concept in mind, it feels like this album has not found a final destination, it feels very aware and living in the present moment. Nothing feels rushed, and just like the ups and downs of the emotions that the album is conveying, the riffs and melodies ascend and descend in a very human way. Pryshliak lets the tension rise and fall with an intuition that escapes many musicians, which is why the album resonates so deeply with its listener.
The album gradually gets more contemplative as it goes on, so the first half of the record is riff and vocal heavy while the second half is more instrumental. It opens with NOTHING IS REAL which initially gives off strong DEFTONES vibes. Pryshliak’s vocals blissfully glide over atmospheric guitars and hypnotic half time drums. EVERYTHING follows a similar format before leading into the eerie and dark DOOMSCROLLING. The song takes a minute to build before erupting into life with heavy chords and interweaving, dreamy lead melodies. COLLISION is a brief moment of real heaviness; grungy and impactful, the catchy chorus melody and vocals echo in your ears long after the song has finished.
MIRAGE is a dreamy instrumental that has a subtle darkness to it, almost serving as an interlude to take us into the more instrumental side of the album. However, FORWARDBREAKFORWARD brings a dose of heaviness with its introductory riff before becoming an anthemic showcase of Pryshliak’s musical abilities. Fading into CALMNESS, the album takes an atrophic turn as the deep synth pulses and kick drum of the song bring about an uneasy calm. PER ASPERA AD ASTRA reintroduces lyrics and vocals over heavy shoegaze riffs and grooves, with Pryshliak’s voice soaring over the intricate guitar work. HOLLOWNESS feels like CALMNESS part two as it seems to develop the pre-established theme of that track further. ウクライナにславаあれ is the album closer and it has a strange happiness about it, but just like the rest of the album it is an unpredictable twist and turn in the course of these complex emotions.
SUPER PINK MOON‘s latest effort is an emotional and immersive listening experience that takes you to the heart of these distressing emotions that the Ukrainian people are experiencing. While we may not fully comprehend it, IRON RAIN allows you to connect on a deeply human level.
Rating: 8/10
IRON RAIN is out now via self-release.
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