Catalan band Under The Moon knows exactly how to catch the eye of a 50+ Black Metal fan: you make a cover that looks like something that a old rocker slapped together himself when he was about fifteen. That’s precisely the vibe of the artwork on the debut demo from this Barcelona-based duo—like they secretly sprinted to the copy shop during recess to throw the whole thing together.
But the moment I started spinning the demo, I realized the nostalgia didn’t stop there. What we get here is a genuine trip down memory lane in the broadest sense of the phrase. Think early Samael around their legendary Medieval Prophecy 7”, early Baxaxaxa, Xantotol, and even faint traces of Mortuary Drape.
All of this is packed into five tracks with a surprisingly solid runtime of around forty minutes. Yes, I am impressed.
This is that wonderfully dusty, simplistic, no-frills Black Metal—the exact sort of thing that draws me to bands like Moenen or Xezbeth. I discovered the latter a bit too late, in hindsight, but with Under The Moon I’m right on time.
The gentlemen Tenebris, Heretic Servant of the Black Goat, and Infamator of the Firetrident all come from the Black/Thrash band Atonement, and the first of the three also took up the drum stool for Körgull the Exterminator earlier this year. So we’re not talking about fifteen-year-olds fooling around in a garage, but seasoned musicians who created this release out of pure nostalgia.
For underground devotees who want to hear uncomplicated early-90s Black Metal again—without unnecessary bells and whistles, but in my opinion raw and honest as gold—this is absolutely a recommendation.
80/100