Moon Coven — Slumber Wood

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Swedish stoner rock band MOON COVEN have released their psychedelic new album “Slumber Wood”, perfect for those looking for something they can chill to, but that still has a heavier sound. The third song “Gîbekli Tepe - Potbelly Hill” is where I really started to take notice of what’s going on with this album. The opening riff caught my attention immediately and I really started to listen intently. It starts off sounding very eerie and menacing, then gets a little heavy.

My favorite song is the fourth one, “Eye of the Night”. I think vocalist David Leban really stands out on this one and the previous song, especially. Plus, the way it starts off is really groovy and it has a cool catchy riff throughout. The entire album is full of catchy riffs, which is what makes it so cool. “A Tower of Silence” seems to be rather pointless. It’s an entire track of just ambient noise that doesn’t feel like it offers anything to the album. It doesn’t exactly transition into the next track or show off any of the musical skill of the band.

I enjoy the guitar solo at about 5:35 in “Bahgsu Nag.” What I like most about this album is that it is very much music you can just vibe too. And this song really plays to that. True to the stoner rock genre, I can definitely picture myself smoking one in a dark room with ambient lighting while listening to this. It’s definitely got a noticeable psychedelic vibe. Even though there is power behind Leban’s voice, and it’s got a nice sound, his vocal work feels kind of monotone. There isn’t a lot of emotion or inflection. A lot of times it sounds like he’s yelling at you from across the street, but there’s no anger or urgency in his voice, no excitement — it’s just loud in a pretty way. The only thing I don’t like about this is that the album starts to feel quite repetitive after a while. All of it sounds essentially the same, which isn’t to say any of the songs are bad, they just bleed into each other, and it becomes one long, long song. If I wasn’t watching the songs change, there are times I would barely notice a different song had begun.

Songwriting: 7
Musicianship: 7
Memorability: 5
Production: 6