Band:	Møl
Album:	Jord
Style:	Shoegaze, Atmospheric black metal, Post-metal
Release date:	April 2018

01. Storm
02. Penumbra
03. Bruma
04. Vakuum
05. Lambda
06. Ligament
07. Virga
08. Jord

Being a blackgaze band or just any band of a genre that is past its prime will warrant some suspicion and disinterest from the public. The only way to reverse the tide is to make sure that you're a notch above the over-saturated rest. Møl do just that.

The story of blackgaze, or post-black metal or however you wanna call it, is similar to a lot of genres that were once "hot". There is a period of about 10 years in which it is all the rage and bands are getting established fan bases, but once it becomes overly saturated and the next big thing comes, there is a silent moratorium. Nobody wanted to hear new glam or thrash metal in 1993, nobody wants new nu metal in 2006, nobody wants new symphonic metal in 2013, so on, unless it's from a band that was already big in the genre's heyday. Blackgaze's decline was so great that we even removed the Metalgaze category from the MS Awards last year. Now comes Møl.

The music will obviously feel mostly familiar. We've all heard Sunbather. And on that very basis, yes, Jord is hugely influenced by Deafheaven and An Autumn For Crippled Children. The guitars are soaring, drenched in sunny, dreamy shoegaze tremolos and post-rock-ish grooves; the drums groove as well, but they interplay with blast beats, and the vocals are ferocious black metal (or screamo, depending on whom you ask) shrieks. The music contrasts the joyful and tranquil with the caustic and abrasive. Thus, it's easy to see why on the surface Jord would be just another Sunbather clone album.

Moving away from the surface, Møl bring a bit of their own into the mix. There are plenty of really sharp riffs and more extreme metal structures, like in "Ligament" or the techy "Vakuum" or the title track, most of which can be attributed to the Nordic sound that Møl have likely formed around. On the other end of the spectrum, the lighter touches are given an instrumental song of their own in "Lambda," so, while following a lot of genre tropes, they do manage to add to an already existing and saturated sound, while also boasting some great musicianship along the line. The genre's saturation will not stop Jord from being absolutely mesmerizing.

Perfect length, great production that keeps the sound expansive, adds bits of identity to a saturated genre, and blends the moods greatly, and the musicianship is excellent. While it's unlikely that blackgaze will undergo a revival until it's time for history to repeat itself, Møl may have arrived just in time to secure a seat on the lifeboat.