Blinded by the Light

German born and bred, Secrets of The Moon is notorious for not being afraid of changing their sound to fit the mood they’re going for. Their last album was more of a doom metal mosaic, while SUN is more of a black metal meets hard rock affair. Which in this case is a good thing.

The songwriting on most black metal albums is usually filled with the same tropes over and over again. “Blast beat here, scream about the devil there”, etc etc.. But you could say that sG and Ar are pushing Secrets of the Moon into a bit deeper territory. Being the songwriters and guitarists, they both take part in constructing these fantastic songs on SUN. Not to say they aren’t singing about what matters most to black metal fans, but the construction of the songs has really grown. Songs have become more intricate. For example, on tracks like “Hole,” it sounds as if it could’ve been taken from an Alice in Chains album. Granted, it is of course more haunting, but that song writing prowess is very much there.

That’s not to say that they don’t flat out go for it. On the albums opening, “No More Colours,” your ears are treated to an onslaught of blast beat after blast beat. Clocking in at an ungodly eight plus minutes, it’s the most brutal of all the songs on the album and sets the tone for the others to follow.

“Dirty Black,” the second song on SUN, carries the torch right into the rest of the album. Starting off with an acoustic guitar it breaks into a full blown hard rock verse and then returns to its haunting acoustic dynamic. This playing with dynamics is something that has become a bit of a recent development, bands taking black metal and crafting other genres around its dark, tough exterior.

“I Took the Sky Away” is arguable one of the heaviest tracks this year. Its absolutely creepy opening of just a piano playing four notes could be pulled from a horror movie.  Then it takes on twists and turns while still keeping the mood dark and ominous.

Black Metal is seriously on the rise these days. Bands like deafheaven, Ghost and now Secrets of the Moon, are bringing black metal up to the mainstream. Something practically unheard of just a few short years ago. Lets hope this trend continues and gives a darker, heavier 2016.