The Danish post-black metal or a rather blackgaze band Møl returns after three years with their second full-length album ‘Diorama’. Classic black metal elements with screeching vocals meet melancholy, brilliance, and shallow sounds. Møl defines this mix in a very own way and they show this again on their second full-length record.
Right at the beginning, the song “Fraktur” shows that Møl know how to turn melancholic parts into groovy walls of sound. This stretches through the whole album. There is also various headbang potential in some parts like for example in the songs “Photophobic” or hymnal parts like in “Redacted”. I guess a lot of the songs on this record will be an absolute blast live as well. In principle, the overall sound is also pretty great, because the guitars are well-matched with fine sounds and the drums are mixed in well. Unfortunately, the bass is a bit lost for my taste.
The mix of different vocal styles screaming, shouting, and clear vocals result in a unique mix that you rarely hear twice. Also, a female guest singer is presented on two tracks. All these great things of the music find their climax in the last song, the title song of the album, “Diorama”. After a ballad part, the powerfulness increases part by part to the end so that this is a worthy end for the album. Overall I find the album very well done and it is also definitely worth a try if someone likes black metal of the newer days.
This album is also a “grower”, which means after listening to it again and again it gets better and better. I personally would have liked in comparison to the album before more powerful and less shallow, playful parts, because it feels for me on average a bit shallow, but that’s just blackgaze and this is also my very personal subjective opinion. The album is excellent either way.
If you like modern black metal and a unique mix of melancholy, ballads, groove, sound walls, and blast beats with well-introduced vocals, you should definitely give “Diorama” by Møl a chance, as the guys have once again proven that they can take an exceptional style in brilliance and creativity even further.