I found Black Moon Mother‘s 2020 album, Illusions Under the Sun, at a Chicago wrecka stow where it was described as a mix of doom metal and shoegaze (doomgaze). I listened to ten seconds of one track and was sold.
Beginning with “Lost in the Maze,” lead singer Brianne O’Neill‘s voice sounds like a ghost calling to you from the other side of a foggy lake while Mikey Owen and Corey Taylor‘s guitars seem to summon more ghosts from under the lake. “Around the Finger” feels like a song about loss and how it lingers with you (“Forever the weight. Inside, you know it stings.”). Jason Gilmore‘s bass riffs have an unexpected groove to them that inspired metal-loving head nods.
“High Winds” has appropriately soaring guitar work from Owen and Taylor while O’Neill’s voice drifts and glides over and through an ancient forest as she reminds us of the power of the world around us. “Slow Down” is a similar theme, with O’Neill encouraging us to touch grass (as the kids used to say) and remember our connection to everything around us.
The powerful “Radiant Sun” features not only Jeff Ehlinger‘s hardest drumming, but also O’Neill’s strongest warning about how apologies to Mother Earth will be too little, too late when she finally decides to set things right (“Creation is blood, soil is mud, we knew not of your worth.”).
The album ends with the instrumental, almost ambient “Afterglow.” It’s a neat way to wrap up a record of heavy riffs and ethereal vocals, showing that Black Moon Mother can create multiple soundscapes and moods. They’ve become one of my favorite discoveries this year.
Keep your mind open.
[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]