MOONDARK — The Abysmal Womb (review)

MOONDARK — The Abysmal Womb album cover Album · 2024 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"The Abysmal Womb" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Moondark. The album was released through Pulverised Records in December 2024. Moondark was a very shortlived group who formed, released a demo, and then disbanded all within the year of 1993. Several members of Moondark subsequently went on to form Dellamorte. Moondark reunited in 2011 and re-issued their 1993 demo as the 2015 "The Shadowpath" demo/album. "The Abysmal Womb" is however their first real studio album.

Lead vocalist/bassist Mats Berggren is not part of the new incarnation of Moondark and therefore new members Allan Lundholm (bass) and Alexander Högbom (lead vocals) have been added, making Moondark a quintet on "The Abysmal Womb".

Stylistically Moondark pretty much pick up where they left off, although Högbom adds a more varied vocal arsenal to the band´s music, which is a welcome change from the 1993 demo. The music is still ultra heavy and relatively primitive old school death metal. It´s not really death-doom metal (the riffs are typically a bit too fat and chuggy for that) but there are some parts of the music which could be labelled that. It´s just generally very heavy music with simple brutal riffs and rhythms, a brutal growling/screaming vocalist in front and the occasional morbid leads to add an eerie mood to the soundscape.

The sound production is powerful, detailed, and very well sounding. It´s great to hear Moondark´s music presented with a good quality sound production. It really boosts the music and makes it more interesting and impactful. Upon conclusion "The Abysmal Womb" is precisly what I had hoped it would be after listening to the 1993 demo. An improvement in all departments and an overall good quality death metal release in the heaviest end of the spectrum. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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