ALBUM REVIEW: Sun King – Moon Coven
Despite formerly being the most heavily industrialised city in Sweden, the picturesque city of Malmö sits gracefully near the southern tip of the country. Linked to the Danish capital via Öresund Bridge, Malmö is a creative industry hub. It is also the home to the bombastic, psychedelic fuzz machine MOON COVEN. After releasing their earth shattering third album Slumber Wood in 2021 the stoner doom juggernaut returns for their fourth album Sun King.
After three riff heavy and trippy albums, MOON COVEN wanted to expand their horizons and experiment with some of their other influences. This has seen them go all out on Sun King, upping their garage-psych ante and expanding their progressive fusion of gritty, bluesy BLACK SABBATH and PINK FLOYD psychedelics. Transitioning between the dark and brooding to the playful and mischievous Sun King sees the Swedish quartet push themselves into the higher echelons their distinctly unforgettable sound.
The album comes at a transitional point for the band, as one member left the band and having done three heavily leaning stoner doom albums, MOON COVEN felt the need to shake things up. By keeping the writing process imaginative and unrestrained whilst recording the album themselves, it is clear to all who listen that the band have truly opened themselves up creatively and stepped powerfully into a new era. The album gets straight to the point, from the opening notes of Wicked Words In Gold They Wrote to the closing salvo of The Lost Color, you have to make sure you’re buckled in as this album is a hell of a ride.
With that in mind, even though it is fast paced it is far from linear, MOON COVEN manage to utilise a plethora of dynamic shifts to pull you about all over the place, adding to the album’s thrill. With various rushes of adrenaline and creative fire, Sun King is exciting and feels rebellious, going against the cliches of stoner doom and heavy psych to take it back to its granular, stout-hearted roots, which in itself is immensely refreshing.
Lyrically, guitarist/vocalist David Regn Leban takes us on a mystical and mythical journey through an epic landscape of vivid tales. While the rest of the band, Axel Ganhammar [guitars], Fredrik Dahlqvist drums] and Pontus Ekberg [bass], create equally vibrant and illustrious soundscapes with fuzz laden riffs, deep bass grooves and thunderous drum rhythms. Sun King is an album that demonstrates a clear vision and as a result the band are fully able to showcase their masterful musicianship.
Ultimately, Sun King is an intense and gritty listening experience, you have all the power of doom intermingled with hypnotic psychedelia in a unique way. By introducing a more garage rock aspect to their sound on this album, it makes the songs rougher round the edges, giving them a rugged and grainy hue compared to the more silky kaleidoscopic heavy-psych albums produced by their contemporaries. The raw edge is something that really suits MOON COVEN and in the case of Sun King it’s a brilliant transition from their previous album.
Opening up with the aforementioned Wicked Words In Gold They Wrote, you’re met with a welcoming barrage of fuzz and soaring vocals. Leban’s vocals sound strong and vibrant as they guide you through the album. Followed up by Seeing Stone, there’s no let up in the pace and the energy remains frantically high, by this point though you’re beginning to feel the rush of the album as it ignites fervently throughout the course of the song. Title track Sun King is an anthemic, bombastic and bluesy track that will get you moving as the acrobatic riffs move up and down the guitarists fretboards with frightening ease. It is here the band also introduce searing psychedelic passages to the already explosively colourful mix.
Behold The Serpent is a much more traditional doom song, dark and brooding, you can feel the crushing weight of the riffs as MOON COVEN dial up the fuzz and lower the tempo. Dahlqvist’s half time grooves mixed with Ekberg’s deep and dirty bass feels like a gravitational pull, taking you down into a hazy abyss. Below The Black Grow initially feels like it’ll follow a similar template but is actually more spacey and garage rock, yet the riffs still hit hard. Guilded Apple and The Yawning Wild are catchy, anthemic tracks that hark back slightly to the band’s previous work whilst still continuing to expand their sound. Death Shine Light On Life prepares you for the headbanging finale The Lost Color, an intense, groove laden, fuzz drenched flaunting of the band’s evolution and the perfect finish to a relentlessly exciting album.
MOON COVEN have entered a new phase, where the waning moon is beginning to give way to a full new moon. Sun King is the first step on this journey and it is truly wonderful to see this Swedish juggernaut thriving rigorously.
Rating: 9/10
Sun King is set for release on August 25th via Ripple Music.
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