Night of the Black Moon

Second full-length for this Lovecraftian Doom/Death act from Oregon, which until recently was a one-man project. This kind of thing can be so hit or miss, and this is pretty much a miss. The songs are all long, which I expected, but they are also rather dragging and repetitive. The guitars do little more than churn along, while keyboard noises that are obviously supposed to be creepy warble and swoop around, attempting to create interest. Almost all of these songs trudge along at the same sentinel pace, and even on repeated listens it is hard to really tell them apart. They will start out with a riff or melody line, but when they 'get going' they all settle into the same time and key and sound identical. Vocals are a low burble, and they don't do anything to add to the proceedings. Here and there you get a decent riff, but the deeply muffled production robs these moments of whatever drama they might otherwise have. Tedious.