Manifested as unholy spirits and summoned for the sake of diversion only to be left wandering as latent psychic dread for three decades beyond Avesta, Sweden-borne death/doom metal quintet MOONDARK finally take shape beyond their stillborn encasement, embodying their ancient sinister ambitions on this hulking tank of a debut full-length album. Still carrying the meandering handed grooves of death metal’s apex in congress with doom ‘The Abysmal Womb‘ wills back to life the rune-carved bones and white-eyed skulls of the old ways, dragging a thousand ton guitar tone and a hundred riffs focused on doom as they explore fresh horrors channeled from beyond. Though ‘old school’ death metal fans have every right to approach a never-was comeback from the deeper legends of the classics-era underground tentatively rest assured that these folks wouldn’t have returned at all if the material wasn’t fitting, exceptional in its craft and up to a highest standard.

Moondark initially formed as a side-project between drummer/co-vocalist Johan Jansson (Beyond, Hatred) and guitarist Kennet Englund (Uncanny) who’d been cracking away at their main band Interment for a few years before deciding to pivot to new possibilities. In the space of 1993 they’d on-boarded guitarist Mattias Norman and co-vocalist/bassist Mats Berggren of Entrails (re: the pre-Fulmination one) for the semi-legendary sole recording ‘Demo #1‘ (1993) which was later reissued as ‘The Shadowpath‘ beyond 2007 or so. If we look to the commentary from maestro Ekeroth from the Svensk döds metall necronomicon he suggests their sound was heavily inspired by the early tapes from Crypts of Kerberos, specifically ‘Demo 1991‘, and this seems entirely plausible under direct comparison as their cavernous mid-to-slow paced death metal sound (re: Abhorrence) had contemporaries in that same peaking era for Eternal Darkness and Gorement though I would suggest these folks were roughshod, quick to get their gear on tape and maybe less melodically inclined. Per the (probable) use of vocal pitch shifting I’d never taken that tape too seriously beyond its horrifying atmosphere and big, burly guitar driven grooves but always included it in the “What if…” sector of unrealized potential per the quickly shifting sands of the Swedish death metal uprising.

In death of… Moondark, Interment, and Uncanny came the very ‘Clandestine‘-gone-hardcore punk fuel-up of early Dellamorte (first album still smokes) followed by the respective members’ remarkable stints in various bands (Katatonia, Centinex, et al.) and reformations of basically every band that’d ever been born in Sweden circa 1986-1993. While ‘The Shadowpath‘ received its dues in several bootlegs over the years, I discovered it through the filesharing/blogspot era of ‘old school’ internet documentation of the early 2000’s, the official reissues came beyond the band’s reunion shows circa 2014 and beyond. At that point they’d brought in bassist Allan Lundholm (Interment, ex-Necrophobic) and vocalist Alexander Högbom (October Tide, Kryptan) who’ve stuck with the group for the ten year walk-up to this debut album. I don’t personally recall reading any interviews that’d suggested they were working on an album and frankly didn’t know they’d kept going with it beyond 2017 so it was a shock to see that this new record would be all original material that intended to follow up on their original demo tape (which was essentially a full album in pre-production) in earnest with this material.

Naming pre-1992 Cathedral and early Crowbar for their doomed and groove-heavy reap alongside the twisted wretch of Crematory (Sweden) in describing the general intent of ‘The Abysmal Womb‘ Moondark have done well to set expectations for the gloom-stricken and sludge heaviness that greets us with the balls-out step of opener “Where Once Was Life” and when I say opener I mean the sort of song that breaks open the pit as the band starts playing, a mean and direct body-stirrer with a fat riff or two at the center of the action. We’re not quite immersed in the hypnose of old school death/doom metal just yet but the breach and the general first impression made is not only apropos of the band’s past but you’ll note right away that this thirty year removed version of the band still has riffs up front.

For my own taste the skull finds the dents it hungers for on “Suffer the Dark” where the volume was cranked to max immediately upon first listen. The guitar and bass tones sound chained together, a hundred Eldritch arms ripping a ravine through the horizon as a wandering and ghoulish lead guitar motions the way forward before the riff then follows. Rooted in doom metal constructs but quickly handed to its grinding, slow-punishing maul via Cianide-esque thrusts there is a somewhat early Finndeath roll to “Suffer the Dark” which then sprawls in the way that some of my favorite records (‘The Ending Quest‘ and anything from Krypts in particular) eventually do, riding down toward despair the further we push into the unknown realm. What struck me beyond simply enjoying the sonic reap and lustrous bass-heavy grind of the production values here, the uglier aggression of this song sets an unforgiving and not at all prettied or “post-” tonal array for Moondark, ensuring this is ‘old school’ death metal for the starving eared doom fiends among us. Even more surprising beyond that point is that they actually stick with it for the full ~47 minutes of ‘The Abysmal Womb‘, they just don’t fuck around and keep hitting huge riffs in this brilliantly ever-burrowing atmospheric delve.

For the sake of appreciating one of the finest, instantly appealing guitar tones, and general production values, that was an instant hit with me this year cheers to Crypt of Kerberos guitarist Peter Bjärgö @ Erebus Odura Studio for lending this album its chasmic thunder. It’d have all worked just fine buzzing around like an old garage-set rehearsal tape, the riffs would’ve been there regardless, but the care given to the sound design here is easily some of the best digs a death/doom record has been handed all year and it definitely still hit after countless spins that ‘The Abysmal Womb‘ sounded nuclear powered. Granted if you’ve no love for the layered heft of late 90’s sludge/doom metal some of that tonal appreciation might be lost upon you as we hit big, riff-built grooves that slug along a la “Sterile Earth” but the real lasting stabs into the depths come with songs that hit a la “Suffer the Dark” such as the slightly more swinging gloom of “Infernal Genocide” and the funereal yet kinetic search of standout “The Abysmal Womb” where those repetitiously cyclic leads tunnel deeper with every strike downward.

Despite strong production values and a fully sorted, all-pro level of performance the straight forward nature of Moondark‘s work considered as a whole best communicates the ‘old school’ death metal appeal of this record. Their work easily manages an authentic result when considered as a step beyond the insistent trudge of the band’s 1993 demo. At the very least the band haven’t mauled the core appeal or constructs that’d driven that early one-off work and in the process of perfecting the sludgy grooves and cavernous bursts of their riff-driven work they’ve extrapolated the essence of early 90’s death/doom metal into what I’d consider to be timeless potency. To be frank expectations are lowered every year that we are removed from the first and second generation wiles of death metal, so much is lost in translation anymore yet what’d been special about ‘Demo #1‘ ages ago is directly reflected (and refined) here on ‘The Abysmal Womb‘. It is well worth touting this as an impressive feat from a band without any particular expectations tied to a relatively obscure tape. There is no wild-haired nostalgia driving the thought that this is one of the better death/doom metal records of the year, at least not on my part, and I figure one could completely miss the larger context and link to the past while still enjoying the subterranean journey they’ve put together here. Completely essential for the death/doom head old-and-new. A very high recommendation.

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