The Swedish duo of Alex Stjernfeldt and Victor Wegeborn have created quite an album here, with opening number “The Water That We All Come To Need” being one of the heaviest songs I have ever heard! But, there is much more to these guys than sheer brutality and power as demonstrated by the next number, which is much more like classic Paradise Lost. There is loads of emotion on this album, all of it dark with a feeling of loss and introverted depression. This is not music to play when you are down the rabbit hole, as it were. Stjernfeldt says “We just want our music to be an emotional explosion. A lot of the songs are about death, missing people you loved who have passed away and losing hope in mankind. We want the music to make you feel like you can move mountains with it. I wish for that when people hear our music, they start to dream away.”
I’m not sure that dreaming is the right way to go about this, as if you go to sleep not long after playing this then your dreams are probably going to be much more in the realms of nightmares, but as for moving mountains I am sure that if you can find speakers large enough then this album could at least demolish a small hill. But, it’s not all about sludge and heaviness as ambient styles and even progressive/experimental all have their place to play in an album that certainly does not feel like a debut. An obvious comparison in many ways is Neurosis, and all in all this promises a ‘bright’ (although to be honest that should read gloomy and depressing) future for the guys. For more details visit their site at www.themothgatherer.com.
