loading...
A misanthropic monster of an album - 93%
The first thing that I notice about this album, is the vocals are much better done, not nearly as screeching as in, say, Trauer, and much improved. Once again Pr. Sergiy has done an excellent job of song writing. Although the lyrics are in Ukrainian, I can still catch the premise of the meanings just through the way it is sung. What really draws me to his music is the obvious care he puts into everything. His thoughts and feelings permeate this work extraordinarily well, and there is much the listener can draw on.
A well-diversified contrast in his long tracks keep the songs moving very nicely. They all start off with a softer ambient portion and 2 to 3 minutes in, it crescendos into straight up depressive style black metal. The listener gets a good grasp of how well Sergiy incorporates his atmosphere in his music, almost like a techno track (bad comparison I know), where there is the base, and it is added onto as the song progresses, where as the song nears climax, the complete composition is seen, and diminuendos back to the ambient section once the song nears conclusion. Going from very soft and melancholy, to spite and depressive anger, to being void of emotion and back into a hole of feeling, where the track concludes. Excellent and well done.
The guitars are nice and crunchy, somewhat over-exaggerated, but nonetheless effective. Usually, once the black metal kicks in from the ambient sections, it is very muddy, and distorted but cleans up nicely as the song carries on.
Drum wise, is a standard black/depressive black metal template, and is effective, and not too bombastic, but not too minimal either. It suits the music, and does not detract from it.
Vocally, Sergiy has improved drastically as I have said before. There is much more readily discernable feeling in the screams because there is not as much distortion and reverb as in some of his previous black metal pursuits. I enjoyed his performance quite a bit.
His use of ambient stretches are wonderful, which is nothing coming as a surprise to me. Hearing his previous works, I believe this is his best work; that being ambient, and synthesizer portions. His samples of thunderstorms and other such natural elements are very well placed and enhance overall mood and atmosphere quite well.
The added elements of acoustics are something that I wish to mention as well, showing yet another side of composition that makes Sergiy's Moloch an excellent, albeit relatively unknown powerhouse in the Ukrainian black metal scene.
Despite being overshadowed by more well-known acts such as Astrofaes, Nokturnal Mortum, and Drudkh, Sergiy's work does not go unnoticed, and with his utilization of so many different types of music in his project, there will come a time where his brilliance will come to light, pardon the pun.
Overall, it is a great album, and I was really glad that I ordered it. It has everything that I enjoy in music: that being depressive feel, excellent ambience and atmosphere, a lot of personal feeling in the music, and nothing that could be construed as pretentious. This is Sergiy pouring his heart out yet again through the airwaves.
