The sheer amount of death metal that came from Sweden as the genre was emerging in the early to mid-90s makes it hard to hear every band from that era, but as more and more have gotten the reissue treatment and even decided to make new material listeners have gotten plenty to check out. Moondark is one of the groups that falls into that category, as you may have come across their 1993 demo at some point if you were diving deep into the history of Swedish death metal but it got more widespread consumption over a decade later when it got repackaged as The Shadowpath. Moondark took a different approach from some of their peers, opting for slower tempos and a mix of death metal and death/doom, and at seven songs their sole effort could easily be treated as an album despite its demo origins. For awhile it seemed as though this group would be another of the many one and done artists, as despite officially reforming somewhere around 2011 it wasn’t clear if this would only be for some live performances. But as 2024 comes to an end Moondark has re-emerged some thirty years after that initial demo with their first official full-length The Abysmal Womb. Despite the lengthy gap, it’s a natural continuation that has plenty of standout riffs and the type of dark, grimy atmosphere that will keep fans of this style coming back for more.
One of the aspects that helps The Abysmal Womb make an immediate impression is the sheer amount of weight the instrumentals have. Opener “Where Once Was Life” demonstrates this by lurching forward at a methodical pace, allowing the drums to hit with a cavernous thud while the guitar and bass feel dense enough to sink into the ground. In a lot of ways this feels like a natural continuation of the raw and weighty tonality of the demo but given a bit more polish a few decades later, allowing each of the instruments to bludgeon equally rather than running together. Moondark tends to lean towards the slower end of the spectrum, often moving between thumping mid-tempo grooves and slow-burning leads that bring in a lot more death/doom, but they do occasionally pick up speed a bit and shake up the formula from song to song. There’s this fine balance between the more straightforward, bludgeoning qualities and the eerie atmosphere generated by the melodies, which goes a long way in giving The Abysmal Womb a bit more substance. Admittedly there are still some tracks that blur together a bit due to the way they are constructed, but there are quite a few sections that have stuck with me over repeat listens. Whether that’s the very moody and haunting atmospheric segments that break up the lumbering, weightier instrumentation on “Suffer The Dark” or the slight hints of melody that hover over the density of the title track, there’s a lot here that draws you to Moondark’s full length.
Original vocalist Mats Berggren didn’t rejoin Moondark for their reunion, but they’ve recruited a very capable replacement in the form of Kryptan and October Tide vocalist Alexander Högbom. Högbom has the type of full, low-pitched growl that meshes perfectly with the group’s lumbering foundation, as there is just as much weight behind each word and the way they expand outwards keeps the intensity at a high throughout each song. It’s the type of sound that’s 100% classic Swedish death metal and considering that Moondark dates back to that same formative timeframe it’s great that they can keep that same feel several decades later. While the pitch may stay at around the same general range for much of The Abysmal Womb, there are sections on songs like “Sterile Earth” where they shift to a higher shriek/scream for a brief period of time and this works well with the melodic leads that are coming from the guitar at the same time. It’s a small detail, but this combined with the way each verse is spaced out works to the band’s advantage.
Moondark isn’t reinventing the wheel here, but they’ve polished and expanded upon the death metal and death/doom in ways that push well beyond the demo. The quality of the songwriting helps to set this one apart, as even when many of the songs have similar flows the instrumentation has sections that stand out on each one and draw you back. It’s that push and pull of the moodier atmosphere and bludgeoning heavy riffs and drum work that make all the difference, and this makes Moondark’s comeback more successful than some of the others in recent memory. The Abysmal Womb is available from Pulverised Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg