MØL
Dreamcrush
NUCLEAR BLAST
If you dig Deafheaven but groan when they periodically gaze at their shoes, MØL may be the band for you. They certainly embrace blackgaze—a portmanteau of ”black metal” and “shoegaze” that’s been around long enough that quotes are no longer required—but aren’t terribly concerned with the hallmark self-reflection embedded in their peers’ DNA. Also, MØL indisputably, impossibly, and irresistibly make magic by imbuing most of their songs with soaring, spot-on melodies that’ll cause your chin to drop to the floor. Founded in 2012, MØL hail from Denmark’s second-biggest city, Aarhus, which has also served as the stomping ground for bands ranging from Hatesphere to Lowly. Marinating in a city with such a diverse music community clearly did MØL a great deal of good, for this is a band that audaciously and proudly put Kim Song Sternkopf’s harsh vocals front and center as guitarists Nicolai Hansen and Frederik Lippert engage in interstellar explorations.
On the band’s newly released third LP Dreamcrush, MØL has given birth, Dr. Frankenstein–style, to the most tantalizing type of metal since Norway’s first Kvelertak spun heads with their own genre-defying sorcery. As opposed to the stoic stage presence of musicians who comprise virtually every black metal band, MØL’s music is filled with emotion. Heartfelt passages in “Dissonance,” a late album track from Dreamcrush, are so tender that it would bring some listeners to tears—until, that is, the band sets off fireworks after the song passes the one-minute mark. Contrast that with “Små Forlis,” a black-metal banger that appears earlier on the record in which MØL, once again, also weaved in A-grade melodies. “Young” is an all-out assault, while “Garland” is such a sweet listen that it’s suitable for radio play.
MØL are going to have to live with comparisons to Deafheaven throughout the rest of their career, even though the bands are more akin to stepbrothers than blood brothers. Like Deafheaven’s George Clarke, Sternkopf alternates between harsh and clean vocals, while Dreamcrush also contains passages of shimmering guitar that closely resemble Deafheaven’s delivery. Indicative of MØL’s cleverness (and, yes, brilliance) is that Dreamcrush could refer to the crushing of dreams or a romantic “dream” crush whose magnetism can’t be resisted—just like this truly marvelous record that MØL have created.
