Band: Moon
Title: Caduceus Chalice
Label: Moribund Records
Distribution: Moribund Records
Release date: June 28th 2011
Review: CD

It is incredible, but Australia seems to cover the whole of our Earth in Black. …beautiful blackness… This country houses so many splendid projects lately, both bands and one-man entities. One of them: Brisbane-based Moon, a project of former Catacombs / Forn Valdyrheim / Urgrund-member Miasmyr. The guy started this project in 2007 and did record two splits, two demos and two EP’s (mainly through the excellent Dutch underground label Svartgalgh) before the debut, Caduceus Chalice. This first full length lasts for more than fifty minutes, yet it doesn’t include but six tracks. This might give you an idea of what to expect.
And praise (some) Lord: Caduceus Chalice fulfils my expectations the most satisfying way!
The album opens with In Shadow, a short instrumental intro that dwells within spheres of Funeral Doom. Yet as from Forest Samhain on, the core business gets clear, even though the funereal atmosphere remains. In Shadow is a beautiful hymn from beneath the deepest abyss. The rather fast track brings underground Black Metal à la the so-called Second Wave. The primitive and raw song combines elements from the European, especially Norwegian scene (think Burzum or early Manes) with elements from the USBM-scene (the splendid Xasthur / Leviathan / Judas Iscariot-kind) and the Australian one (Abyssic Hate, Striborg, Paroxysmal Descent and that sort of Underground Supremacy). These comparisons go as well for the other songs, even though the tempo differs a lot. Sometimes the whole is built around fast rhythms, then again it decelerates into ominous doom. Yet as mentioned before, this extremely tasteful Underground Beauty gets darkened by the most grim and oppressive sounds not uncommon within the Funeral Doom (Abstract Spirit, Urna) and Suicidal Black Metal (earlier Shining or Craft, for example) scene.
The hymns do include industrial intermezzos and soundscapes, giving this bleak and haunting soundtrack a subtle touch of apocalyptic ambience on top of it, and some atmospheric keyboard lines, creating mesmerising agitation. The last track, for example, the longest one (over nineteen minutes) on Caduceus Chalice, comes closer to floating Dark Ambient / Post-Industrial than occult and venomous Black Metal.
Thanks again, Moribund!

93/100

Ivan Tibos.