Blood from Stone

A problem that every collector of ridiculously overprized records from the overglorified past encounters in his life time is the running out of real massive classics in the catalogue of art. There is no endless supply of genius or lucky coincidences. Every genre, scene and time has only a limited amount of absolute bangers to offer. The Moaning released an album for listeners that heard "Storm of the Light's Bane" or even "Far Away from the Sun" a bit too often. One spin too much and you can grow tired of a record you thought you could listen to for the rest of your silly little life. It's a bit like the disillusionment of marriage. "What, you're still here?" And then you cheat. With a woman. Uhm, I mean with another album. Where was I going with this?

I am not so sure about that sonority. The guitars wield that a bit too sterile and clinical brush, a murkier package with some tasteful reverb would have felt way more organic in the attempt to turn hate into energy. The same goes for the drums, which play it safe with a standard recording sound for rock groups and do not even attempt to reach the legendary drum roll timbre before "Night's Blood" in terms of sheer otherworldliness. The vocals are great, a passionate throat fucking of icy winds, if not a bit too loud in the mix. You can hear every inch of youth in these screams and they engage you immediately.

The problem with a whole band composing an album is the inconsistency of the finished undertaking. We have thrash, melodic death, black and heavy metal influences on this record and that's at least two styles too much. Clearly, this band wanted to have fun and not revolutionize the world of swedish black/death metal. Therefore it seems that the best parts of the record were not really planned but grew from some innocent jams with the fellas after kicking beer cans in a clueless single parents basement.

But occasionally, real greatness shines through. For example, the part from 04:10 to 04:33 on "Dying Eternal Embers" is just so heart kicking and face fucking beautiful that I have to say that with an album completely drowned in these moments, everyone would know about this band today. Hot damn, it's like Windir is making warm nervous first time love to Gates of Ishtar in a tower made of blue crystal during a snowstorm with a sunset in the back. The little drum solo on "Of Darkness I Breed" is also worth mentioning, another nice nugget that bands from the same time did not think of.

The last song "Dark Reflections" with its super catchy, melancholic guitar melodies always makes me sad for "The Moaning". They clearly were musicians by heart and could have made an everlasting impression like Gates of Ishtar if they had just a bit more chances on this earth. Of course, the spirit of the time had a hand in composing these rash songs, so I am not entirely sure who gets the credit here. It's a nice album nonetheless, some steps and leagues above abhorrent mediocrity. So you won't be disappointed if you already like this style. Plus, you get to witness some out of bounds teenage anger, the most beautiful of all the angers.